Finally running again

Though today was closer to swimming.  It was 70 degrees and 86% humidity.  I haven't run in temperatures higher than 50 in a couple weeks so it threw me off for a second.

Shortened my warm up walk a bit to see how I did.  Not really a good day to test something like that since conditions were so unusual for the time of year.  It's possible my body warmed up faster than it will next week when some of the mornings are supposed to be in the 30s.  Anyway, useless conjecture at this point.

That minute of walking I skipped didn't really make any difference today.  At least not as much as the fact that I've been basically sedentary for almost a week.  Managed to do my first mile faster than 10 minutes.  Not much faster, but I was pretty happy about it.  I did let myself slow since my goal was 35 minutes and with that much time off I was worried that I'd blow up early.  At least that's what I tell myself.  It's entirely possible I was just being lazy.  Regardless, it's what I did. 

Rest of the run blurs now.  I couldn't hear the voice telling me how long I'd been running so I was guessing based on the iPod getting suddenly quieter then louder.  That's not the most reliable method apparently because at one point I had absolutely no clue how many times that had happened.  I guessed I was close based on the route I'd taken to that point and decided I'd stop at a particular point on the way back that gave me a little time to cool down, regardless of actual time.  Unfortunately, I was about 1.5 minutes short of my 35 minute goal.  I don't remember now where I stopped so it was either 3.15 or 3.25 miles total.  That tells me I slowed down too much after the first mile.  The problem is I don't realize I slow down when I'm doing it.  I think I'll have to create my own workouts in interval runner and put in some announcements to speed up. 

In all, it felt good to be back out there.  I didn't realize I missed running when I was taking my unintended break.  Same thing used to happen when I rode my bike a lot.  When I didn't ride for an extended period, the first ride back out would make me wonder why I didn't go out every day.  Not sure how I can flip the switch in my brain that makes me miss running and forces me out the door. 

Tomorrow I go out again.  I am going to map out a route that I know is 3.5 miles so that I have keep the pace up to complete it in the 35 minutes.  I may add some Fartlek in as well, just so I know I'm not plodding along.  I'll save plodding for the long Saturday runs I plan to start doing once I get through my build up to one hour and beyond.  I'm also going to start tracking my runs again.  I'm using Daily Mile this time since the Runkeeper and SportyPal apps never seemed to work right.  Too pad there's no iPod app for the site, at least that I can find...