I set a record today.

I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t planning on it. But there it was when I checked my stats post run.

I’ve had this training watch for two years. I bought it with the plan to start running regularly. I am finally getting a little closer to that goal.

My record was fastest 5K.

Pretty cool, right?

Today was a level up day. It was time to start running 20 minute intervals. I was nervous, excited, and hit my knee on the car door getting out.

Me and hubs went out today. It’s the first day of school for the kiddos and we decided to drop off the youngest and drive to the river. The kid was running late. He’s always running late. He’s gotta make sure he looks fly, make his own lunch because he hates school lunch, and then make his bagel. Tag in a last minute tooth brushing because he always forgets, and we were out the door 10 minutes later than intended.

Hubs doesn’t run with me. He doesn’t run. He likes to walk and listen to his podcasts. Having another person would harsh his vibe. Also, he won’t run.

My first interval went well. I didn’t even check my watch until the 18 minute mark. The second interval not so much. I let everything turn my job to a walk. There were two down trees from the storms from this week, narrowing the passage. I walked through those. There is an incline up to a bridge. I walked that. I was doing well and randomly looked at my watch and walked at the sight of the amount of time I still had to go.

Either way, decent showing. I’m glad I leveled up and so proud of my record-breaking day!

Tech issues — July 28 stats

I gotta be honest; I don’t know if I had a good day of running today or not.

Tech was not my friend. I grabbed my kid and we went down by the river. I pop in my beloved AirPods and those little sonsofbitches were dead as doorknobs. I sat in my truck and tried to charge them. I got enough of one to start my audio book but they died before my first interval.

People run without headphones. I have ran without headphones before. The reason I don’t is because I can hear every conversation around me at the park and the whole point of running is to be in my body. The other reason is because I can loudly hear every breath I take. Fine. I want to be in my body but not that much in my body.

But when I recovered, I put them I their case, in my pocket and continued on.

Sometimes the tech works against you and it is damn annoying.

In my first interval, I was sure I was going too fast. I felt like I was flying and I kept telling myself that I was going to burn out. In my next two intervals I knew I was much slower. I put one foot in front of the other and push, push, push. I walked up an incline and jogged down the other side. I stopped and took two photos of the lovely trees. I was sure my stats would be lousy anyway, so whatever.

Except my stats weren’t lousy. They were equal. All in the 16 min per mile mark. The first interval where I thought I was going to blow it was the fastest, but not like I’ve booked it before. And my recovery minute was somehow faster than my running interval? Bah!

Sometimes the tech fails.

Good run, bad run. Whatever. I went out there and did the thing.

Double Day — Fitness for July 25

I don’t normally do a yoga sequence before I head out. I haven’t been doing much yoga at all lately. But I am still nursing a minor injury and I needed the extra stretching.

Injury is too strong of a word anyway. I don’t have any pain. I came down on a rock and ever sense I have been very aware of my knee. When a body is firing on all cylinders, it functions as a unit. Now when I walk around my house, I think, “I have a left knee.” Too much awareness.

Today was a good session. Because of my awareness, I am too nervous to push myself too hard. I walked in my run intervals a little, but barely enough to notice. 12 minutes (x3) is longer than I have run in a while. I still want to reach my goal of 30 minutes straight, but if I can’t hit it before I return to teaching, I’m just going to have to be okay with it.

The challenge could have been the insurance. It could also have been the hills. They aren’t ridiculous but they’re definitely an incline. More than once at the summit, I’d find myself say, “Wow! What a hill.” I would have cussed but a little girl was lapping me on her scooter with her mom. But the challenge could have been that I haven’t run for a few days and 12 minutes is a long time when running.

It wasn’t too hot out. I had a nice breeze. But I still got home sweaty AF. On the final walk, my body was crying for some electrolytes. I found some Nuun tablets to add to my water and chugged it down.