Fourrrrrrrrr!

I'm currently icing my hip as I write this....but I ran a total of four miles today! I felt fine; I think I'll continue with the icing post runs for a while though.

I told my dad I couldn't wait to start training again. He took that to mean I wanted to go on a 10 mile run this week and freaked out. YES, I'd love to go on a long run. NO, I'm not that stupid.

I did not do all four of these miles together. Timing any of them was a lost cause. But to know I still had the endurance to run four miles in a day without being super exhausted at the end of it is really exciting.

Today, I "ran" the first two miles with the eight year old I babysit. She was on a bike and I was running after her. Until we got to hills, then she would tell me to sprint up them, and wait for her at the top (She walks her bike up hills.) I'm pretty sure this is NOT what most people do when they are getting back into running. After we finished she told me she wants me to do this workout with her three days a week. Yes, you read that correctly, I now have an eight year old personal trainer and she's kicking my ass! (All from the seat of a pink Schwinn with streamers.)

Honestly, hills are probably an element I should have added to my workouts but didn't in the winter because I was running inside. Hills suck. But, they make flat runs seem that much easier. And it's only between two and three miles. I get to stop and wait for her a few times. And I'm pushing my pace just trying to keep up with her on the bike. She's going to look back on her childhood and think how crazy her baby-sitter must have been, and I'm more than okay with that.

So the above was Unplanned Workout #1. Workout #2 was also pretty random. I asked my friend Rebecca if she wanted to hangout tonight, and she asked me if I wanted to go on a run. I felt pretty good after the first run, and said yeah if it was 2 to 3 miles. And we could drink a beer after it [ha].

Rebecca lives in Arlington (Where I used to live when I had a higher paying job.)

"I go jogging at a reasonable pace, when I get to intersections, man I run in place."

But we didn't do much jogging in the part of Arlington with all the intersections. We ran across Key Bridge, down to Georgetown (an area of DC with shops and restaurants near the university), and down by the Waterfront. We turned around at the Kennedy Center. Ran back through the park. Walked from Georgetown back to Key Bridge, ran across that bridge again, then walked to her apartment. So we ran at least 2 miles.

Here's a random video I found on YouTube that gives you an idea of how great this area of DC is for running!



Where I used to live, this run would have required a metro ride to get to it, but I'm sort of embarrassed I had never done it before. Tons of people were out jogging, and IMO it really doesn't get any better than jogging by water. (Or over bridges). The streets/bridge/path were pretty flat and made me realize JUST HOW HILLY the neighborhood I've been running in is.

I'm not sure what pace we were jogging at. Probably 10:something/mi. But, I made a point of finishing strong/picking up the pace on the last part of our run by the water. And our second run on the bridge. This felt good!

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED having a running partner. Not sure we'll do this a ton. But maybe, hopefully, again sometime. I think I'm definitely on a mission to get faster as a runner, but I also want to try new things. I don't want to limit myself to the treadmill any more now that it's nice outside.

I still think a half in June may be too much, too soon, but I want to find some shorter races at the very least. Today was the first good run I've had since the Shamrock Half! And that's something to smile about!