I’ve been able to run quite regularly for the year so far and my heel seems to be allowing me to go 4 miles at a time without any problems.  For the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about my approach to running and I think I’m actually in the process of evolving as a runner.  I’ve noticed a couple things about myself, one good and one bad:

I no longer seem to be concerned about how fast I run.  A year ago, I was obsessed with going further or faster.  These days, I’m just happy to be running and happy that my heel hasn’t been giving me any problems.  A year ago, I would be constantly monitoring my Forerunner to see how fast I was going.  I still monitor my Forerunner, but not as often, and when I do, it’s to see if I should slow down, whereas a year ago, I was monitoring it to see if I should speed up.

The other observation I’ve made is that don’t seem to be as motivated as I was a year ago. For example, this week has been rather cold with the temperatures hovering around the 30-35F range in the afternoons which is when I’ve been running recently and I’m finding it harder to get myself out the door in those temperatures.  A year ago, I almost considered it a badge of honor to go running in those temperatures and the colder it was, the more I wanted to go running.  The hardest part for me right now is just getting dressed and getting out the door.  Once I do that, I’m fine.

This week is going to be a bit warmer here in the DFW metroplex so I wouldn’t have weather as an excuse anymore.  As a matter of fact, the temperature this is week is suppose to be what I consider ideal running temperatures….the 50s F.

Posted by derek as Training at 10:19 AM PST

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I started back running for the new year, although it’s just 2-3 miles at a time.  So far, my heel seems to be coping quite well.  As I mentioned in the past, I know my heel isn’t 100%, but it seems to be allowing me to run a little.

So far for the year, I’ve run 6 of the first 7 days.

I’m so happy to be running again that I don’t want to jeopardize it so my plan is to continue with the shorter runs for now.  I may try a 4-miler, but my plan is to stick to 3-mile runs for the majority of my runs.  If I can get through a couple weeks like that, then I’ll look to bumping it up to a regular 4-mile run.

Posted by derek as Training at 9:41 PM PST

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