The Tortoise and the Hare

I was out the door this morning 5:45am and just decided to run. Wasn't sure of distance, just wanted to go with the flow and find a nice stride and ride it. A bit more humid than yesterday at this time but still quite comfortable.

I started slow but gradually increased my pace. I ran a stretch of road with undulating hills, hit them hard and it felt great. One hill is very steep and I ran that one twice - retraced my steps and charged up it a second time. On my return I saw a rather large turtle in the middle of the road - I couldn't help but chuckle at the obvious Kafkaesque symbolism. I stopped, picked it up by its shell, and it snapped at me several times so I just nudged it with my shoe to the edge of the road so he wouldn't get smushed. Ornery little fellow.

I wasn't sure of my exact distance but total running time was 1:25:45, so I would estimate around 9.5-10 miles, mas o menos. That would make sense because my last two 12.99 runs were that pace, and this one felt like it was in the same ballpark. Steady, consistent, just like my friend the turtle trying to cross Haley Road.

I am going to include some fartlek training moving forward - Swedish for 'speed play'. Basically it's running sprints in intervals during regular runs. Sprint to the blue mailbox, back to regular pace for a bit, sprint to the yield sign, etc. I want to get faster. Need a little more 'hare' in my workouts.

When I returned Mrs. Torn Ligaments went out for a 4 mi run with my sister and her husband, as the extended Torn Ligament family is here for the Memorial Day weekend. I have my sister to thank for my personal running renaissance - after being grossly out of shape for a decade she encouraged me to go for a run with her last August when I visited family down in Connecticut. She ran the New Orleans half marathon and incorporated running into her daily life. Thanks to her insistence, I laced up my Merrill cross trainers that I've never done anything other than walk to the mailbox in, and that first five mile run on that oppressively humid day set me on the path to proper fitness. It turned into my very first 5k with her last September, the Kennebunkport 5k in October, and six months of hard training later, a marathon finisher. The journey of 1000 miles does indeed begin with a single step, fortune cookie simple but oh so true.