TITLE: Still Figuring Things Out AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: July 13, 2008 9:33 PM DESC: ----- BODY: Last Sunday, I ran 9 miles. It was my longest long run since coming down with whatever ails me 10 weeks ago or so. It felt better than I expected. The result was 30+ miles for that week. My plan for the past week was to repeat that mileage and let my body adjust before trying to do more. But then I felt rundown all week. I felt slow when I was on the road, and I felt listless at work and at home. I decided to skip my Friday run, in order to recover a bit, and maybe rest a little. Friday night, my whole family drove three hours to Minneapolis. My wife and older daughter were to attend a dance camp for a few days, and my younger daughter and I tagged along for Friday evening and Saturday. Saturday, the three of us who weren't dancing spent all day on our feet, mostly walking to, from, and at the Mall of America. (Yes, it's a very big mall.) At the end of the day, I was exhausted, and my younger daughter and I drove home. This morning, I slept in, recovering a bit. I decided to give my planned 9-miler a go in the afternoon, but even before I started I was thinking of contingencies. I would take it slow, and if I didn't feel well, I could trim it back to 8, 7, or even 6 miles. The weather would be quite warm, and I usually run in the morning before heat is an issue, so I carried water for even this short "long run". I felt good. I ran faster and more comfortably than last week. For Mile 7, I ran a shocking 8:18. (The time is shocking only in the context of the last ten weeks!) I slowed over the last 2.5 miles, yet my overall time was almost 3 minutes than last week's run over the same route. Of course, soon I had to sleep, and sleep I did, hard and deep for an hour or more. My body is getting back into the swing of running, but in certain ways I'm still where I was weeks ago. What's worse, I don't know how my body will react to any given run or day. I'm still figuring things out, and hoping to get well all the while. -----