Ran 5 Miles

The jetlag was still bothering me. Saturday                                                                  
morning, I woke up at around 4:00am, couldn't get                                                            
back to sleep, and read till 6:20. The sky was                                                               
clear and I headed out for the trail.                                                                        
                                                                                                             
I haven't run for 5 months. My new gig has been
engaging and taken much of my attention (I was a
little addicted to work for the past few months 
and my ever-improving health seemed to help).
Lifting weight and training in the gym were great
but something was missing: the deep relaxation
only a good zen-like run could bring, not to
mention the super-low heart-rate I used to enjoy
when running regularly.

For the past two years, my plantar fasciitus took
the fun out of running but recently, thanks to
consistent stretching, things seemed to improve.
The recent trip to China wasn't an active one and
I barely stayed away from getting sick. Coming
back, I recovered well in spite of the jetlag and
was itching for some action.

Weighing 140 lbs this morning, I felt light and
powerful charging down the trail. The outside of
my right knee hurt slightly but my core felt
strong and the body felt one piece. I jogged
at an even pace breathing 5 steps in and 5 out.
The goal was to keep these numbers and not to
run out of gas at any time.

Trying to focus on breathing is a meditation
practice. There's no one to compete with, not even
myself. My run has to be comfortable first but not
necessarily fast.

I was able to speed up on the paved segments of
the trail but the 2nd half was mostly gravel and I
had to slow down. I finished in about 40 mins
without much sweating. It felt great.

I did yoga after and felt tighter than usual which
was not a surprise. Let's see how my right foot
hold up later today and tomorrow.

[7grizzly]

回複 '暖冬cool夏' 的評論 : Thanks for reading. Maybe I shouldn't even record the overall speed and distance so that one has nothing to compare with ;-) Just like Joy Johnson would've said “I just praise the Lord I can get out of bed and run."

By all means, try jogging and sweat! But hiking is great, too, and probably more sustainable.

[暖冬cool夏]

Wow, running 5 miles in 40 minutes is a feat to me. My heart cannot stand the fast running, at least not for now. Maybe one day I will try slow running, since it is very tempting to know that running will bring about super- low -heart -rate. Finally we hiked again today after weeks of lapse, for about 8.5 miles in 3 hours