My semi-triumphant return
I took last week off from running to rest my leg, which has been hurting since the 10K three weeks ago. In doing so I think I managed to miss the last nice week of running weather for the year (dry 50s and 60s, come back! I'm sorry I said I hated you!), and we started up again last night - with 80 degree temps and probably around 80 percent humidity.
I'm really not too bothered by the heat, but I worry about Riley, and that worry causes me to let him get away with too much, like stopping every 5 feet to sniff or pee on something because I'm afraid he's stopping because he's too hot. (Note to self: If he's bothering to stop and pee on stuff, he's probably not overheated.) In that fashion, we managed a 20-minute mile and half. That's right, 20 minutes. We're awesome. But my leg felt OK. The side of the knee, where the pain has been, felt kind of stiff but didn't actually hurt, and it felt better the farther we went. I take that as a really good sign; on the runs I did in the couple of weeks after the race, it would feel OK to start with and hurt after I'd been going for a while. And Riley did OK with the heat (aside from drinking about a gallon of water when we got home and then needing to go outside and pee at 5am). I'm actually considering the horrific idea of trying to run in the morning. When the humidity's like this it's not really any cooler in the morning, but in the daylight I can walk down to Shoal Creek and let him cool off (but that park is creepy after dark).
I'm going to keep the mileage low and build back up very slowly, which means I won't be doing the 10K I was considering on June 7. I'm already out of time to properly prepare for it. My more modest goal is to do the Keep Austin Weird 5K in late June and the Moonlight Margarita Run (also a 5K, which just happens to fall on my birthday this year) in August. But for a while running will mostly just be conditioning for polo, because ohmygod nationals are six months away!!
I'm really not too bothered by the heat, but I worry about Riley, and that worry causes me to let him get away with too much, like stopping every 5 feet to sniff or pee on something because I'm afraid he's stopping because he's too hot. (Note to self: If he's bothering to stop and pee on stuff, he's probably not overheated.) In that fashion, we managed a 20-minute mile and half. That's right, 20 minutes. We're awesome. But my leg felt OK. The side of the knee, where the pain has been, felt kind of stiff but didn't actually hurt, and it felt better the farther we went. I take that as a really good sign; on the runs I did in the couple of weeks after the race, it would feel OK to start with and hurt after I'd been going for a while. And Riley did OK with the heat (aside from drinking about a gallon of water when we got home and then needing to go outside and pee at 5am). I'm actually considering the horrific idea of trying to run in the morning. When the humidity's like this it's not really any cooler in the morning, but in the daylight I can walk down to Shoal Creek and let him cool off (but that park is creepy after dark).
I'm going to keep the mileage low and build back up very slowly, which means I won't be doing the 10K I was considering on June 7. I'm already out of time to properly prepare for it. My more modest goal is to do the Keep Austin Weird 5K in late June and the Moonlight Margarita Run (also a 5K, which just happens to fall on my birthday this year) in August. But for a while running will mostly just be conditioning for polo, because ohmygod nationals are six months away!!