When Pushing Yourself Leads to Falling

I didn't literally fall, but all's been quiet on the Blogspot front for awhile now. At the beginning of this month I started to experience quite a bit of pain upon impact of running in my knees and ankles. Where I was formerly running about four and a half miles, which admittedly was pushing it, one day I could barely make it around the 1/10th of a mile indoor track. I took that day to cycle, took about a week off and then did a mile-and-a-half jog, but was still experiencing pain. So, as I am wont to do, I justified to myself that injury and impending graduation meant I could just stop running for awhile.

I'm sure it was a good decision, but I feel endlessly guilty about it.Plus I miss the roommate running, but Danny is training for an event and I need to slow down. I've also been sluggish and moody from not running, and I think I've gained back a couple pounds, too. So today, when my first class let out over an hour early and my second class was canceled and the sun was shining, I thought, RUNNING. NOW. I bussed down to the good old South Bay Trail and jogged the whole length of it, Fairhaven to the edge of downtown, without stopping. My extremely casual fresh-off-a-two-week-break pace clocked me in at 22 minutes for the 2.3 mile trail, or about 9.5 minute miles.

...Of course since I have not up to this point timed any of my miles, that doesn't really mean anything to me, except that I'm fairly certain that in middle school when they used to make my lazy butt run the mile, it took me eleven to thirteen minutes. So it's nice to know that my tortoise pace now is faster than my best effort then. Even if I'm not one of those five foot tall speed demon girls who used to get six minute miles in middle school. MIDDLE SCHOOL. Those were the same girls who did the V-sit by simply collapsing their spines and pelvises and reaching like twelve inches past their toes. "What manner of beast is this?"

Anyway, nothing hurts and I enjoyed some lovely chipotle guacamole as an after-run snack and now it's time for a shower. Love to The Offspring for musically fueling my run. If it is two weeks before I post again, I shall be as disappointed as you, dear readers.

If you're still out there.

Hello?