Starting over

So I promised myself that I wouldn't post again to the blog until I was "over the hump" and running consistently again. After three weeks of running at least 3 times per week, I hope I'm there. There were many factors in my desire to start running again. Stress at work, stress at home, low energy, low motivation... While I'll probably take some ribbing for this, my declining golf game was also a significant factor. When the one outlet you have to relax and get some exercise turns into something that causes more frustration, stress and injuries, things are not well. Perhaps more notable is what is not on the list...losing weight, "keeping up with the Jones" (i.e. you all) or training for a specific event.

So I started running at lunch at work. I used to like running in the heat. The first day was 90+ but I figured running a couple of miles along the waterfront wouldn't be so bad. I can't ever remember being so hot my life. It wasn't so much from the air or sun, but the pavement. I ran for 20 minutes. After 15 minutes of walking, a shower, 15 minutes in front of an industrial A/C unit, 10 minutes to get lunch, and another 15 minutes in front of the A/C unit (helps to run the data center), I finally stopped sweating. My second run, while not as hot, took almost as long to cool down from. My next three runs were on the same route at work but at 5:30 in the morning. Considerably cooler and faster. Interestingly, even though I was up early and exercising, I felt like I had more energy at the end of the day. Encouraging.

The only goals I have are to run 3x per week and increase the mileage gradually. So far so good.