The day I forgot to stop running. 

My running has been pretty inconsistent the past two months. I seem to be able to get a quick 30 min hills run in on Mondays but my scheduled Thursday pace run and Saturday long slow distance were spotty at best. Then there was a break when I had a nasty respiratory bug. I felt so guilty not exercising and blogged about it. I really couldn’t run, actually I got very winded walking to and from work. So much so I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. I was so grateful for the shared wisdom on my flu post about when you take it easy or push through. 

So last Saturday I decided to do my pace run. I trotted off on a slightly longer route as I looked for the distance I can cover in 30 min, my recent routes were getting too short as my speed has increased. 

I was going at about 75%, not sure how my lungs would be, faster than an LSD but it didn’t feel hard. I thought about a lot of things, including my next few blog posts, and my mind wandered. At one point I looked up and realized I was nearing the halfway point of my run and I hadn’t stopped to walk. My lungs felt good and my legs strong so I just kept going. 

Until that moment I hadn’t been fit enough to NOT agonize over every step.  I would focus on my breathing and make it to the next telephone pole or intersection. Each running step had been agony. It felt pretty amazing to feel somewhat effortless as I went along. 

As I rounded the last turn of my loop I realized I wouldn’t need to stop at all! 

Sure it was a short 3.5 km but I had not walked once. Amazing. 

  
I was kind of surprised and when I did stop I made a lot of noise. Lots of “ah” and “oh” and of course cussing 🙂

I went to take a smiley selfie but the gasping surprised one seemed more legit. 

Then Monday I had my hills night. Each outing over the past month I had done 1 thing to make it longer or harder. First extending my warm up loop, then adding a rep, then adding distance to my cool down. Monday I decided to run both up & down. Until then I had needed to walk the downside to catch my breath. Wahoo!

  
Thursday I made my pace run and added a smudge more distance. It was really warm. I hit my target pace and kept it fairly consistent. I listened to my body the whole run and I didn’t need to walk. 

I was chatting with my sister Anj and she was amazed at how I’ve reclaimed running. 

In military college I was kicked out in fourth year for failing to run the 2.4 km under 12 minutes. I used to hate running partly because it never came easy to me, partly because of anxiety and asthma but mostly because I wasn’t very fast. I don’t care now how I measure up to others or even my 20 year old self. I’m feeling strong and fast for 41 year old me and that is pretty awesome. 

I hope you are having great workout moments, maybe you should blog about them!