I'm Back!

After 3 days of rest, 6 ice packs, a handful of ibuprofen and a new pair shoes I hit the pavement for an easy three miles this morning. My knee felt pretty good. I had a little twinge of pain during my warm up whenever I twisted it and it bothered me a little for about the first quarter mile of the run. After that I was fine and I think my new Asics helped quite a bit.

My split for the first mile was 10:44, pretty slow but about what I was shooting for. This was supposed to be an easy run after all. Mile two was 9:21, a much better improvement than I expected. I tried to just maintain that pace for mile three, (honestly - I did try). I was feeling great with about a half mile left so I kicked it up a gear for the finish. I finished the third mile in 8:39 for a total time of 28:46, not a bad time for me considering the slow start. (Bad runner! You were supposed to take it easy!)

I iced my knee again afterwards and took some ibuprofen as a precaution. As I write this my knee is feeling fine.

Tomorrow I have another short group run scheduled with the West Volusia Runners. I will probably add a lap or two around the pond to get the distance up to 4 or 5 miles. If that goes well I will probably go for 10 miles later in the weekend.

I just don’t feel like these three mile runs are much of a workout for me anymore. I’m just starting to get warmed up and hitting a nice comfortable stride and then they are over. For the past two months I ran a lot of 5 and 8 mile runs and I like that distance. I could feel a noticeable improvement in my running each week.

I haven’t run in a 5k race in a couple of years and I have no idea how fast I could run one now if I warmed up properly. If I can get the first mile closer to 9 minutes I think I could finish under 25 minutes. I will have to put that to the test soon.