Saturday, August 18, 2007

Sneaking out for a quickie at lunch

Friday, I often work from home. I generally work from home one day a week, and in the summer the best day for that is Friday, because the traffic on 495 and 90 is a real bitch at the end of the work week (I actually prefer working from home Tuesday or Wednesday; I tend to get more done, but oh well).

One of the pluses of working from home is being able to sneak in exercise time. So yesterday, I logged out of IM around 11 AM and tied the sneakers on. With temps below 70 and the sun just starting to peek out, it was a rare chance for a beautiful mid-day run.

I started out, as with all my neighborhood runs, with only a rough idea of how long I'd be out. In the end, I made just about all the "make the run longer" choices when they popped up, and I walked back up the porch totally spent but feeling incredibly satisfied.

4.5 miles, which is "not a big deal" for most runners, but is the farthest I've run in over two years. It's just a number, and not that big of one, but it made me feel amazing. Around 3 miles into the run there's this nasty hill, pretty steep but not that long. It's just enough to make you question your sanity before you get to come back down.

Anyway. My legs are complaining now, but man is my soul happy.

2 comments:

Jank said...

There's kind of a natural progression that I've noticed whenever I take up running after a long time off.

First is three miles - it seems like forever; then suddenly, you can run three at the drop of a hat.

Next is 5 - seems like SO far; who'd ever want to go that far.

After that, it's 10, which is pretty much being able to run for an hour and a half.

And once you're over 10, it's all gravy.

Dave said...

I've heard similar comments from other folks, and I wish I could experience it for myself.

I want to get to the hour+ on a once-a-week basis, and then see how far I can go after that.

I sit in secret envy of all you runners who talk about "an easy 15 miles" and such.