Quarter Marathon

As a minister, I've known my fair share of people with hip injuries. However, I've typically equated hip injuries with broken hips, and seen it as an "old person problem." Imagine how I felt, then, when my hip started to hurt while running last Wednesday. I did about 4.2 miles for the day, but it was an extremely slow and painful run! I rested Thursday and Friday, in the hope that I would be better able to run Saturday morning with Marianna.

Saturday came, and I was feeling better. We met a little late, as I was running late, and found that there was no parking. I parked at the Pfluger Bridge and walked about 1/2 mile to meet Marianna. The run was great. She went with me to IH35, then back to First Street, where she finished and I kept going. I got to the MoPac bridge, which was my goal for a stopping point with a walk the rest of the way back, but ended up running the whole way back, making the workout 6.6 miles, or a quarter marathon. I actually walked about a third of a mile, because I would run for about a mile, then walk for a minute. I also worked on picking up the pace around walkers, as I sometimes feel like I am barely running when I approach them. So, I saw this as an opportunity to work on the speed aspect of my run. As I approached a walker, I would speed up, then would keep that speed up from the time I approached them to about a minute after passing. I would not allow myself to walk in that time, even if it was my scheduled time. I ran at my normal pace for at least another minute before slowing to a walk.

Next Saturday we will be meeting at Austin High for our run. The IH35 loop will be 7.1 miles. My goal is to do a mile run minute walk and complete the entire thing in under an hour and a half. I was at 1:29:56 Saturday, so I will need to pick the pace up a little.

This morning's run was 3.5, and was at a faster pace then I normally run. I ran 1.5, then walked a minute, walked .5 then walked a minute, then ran finished doing 1.5 miles to finish up.  My workout was completed with 400 abs.

Wednesday's goal:  1 mile for speed.  I am a little nervous, but interested in seeing how I do.

So, until next time, Run like your life depends on it!