Back in stride

I had taken some time off running after the 10K and for some reason, it has been really difficult to get back into it. Sure, illness and other commitments hasn't helped, but there's really no justifiable reason why I found it so difficult the past few weeks. It dawned on me during my last run that part of the problem was I was taking teeny-tiny steps. I don't know why I started doing that but I was barely moving my feet with each step, like I had some fear of putting my foot too far in front of my body. I was as close to running in place as you could be without actually running in place. Thank goodness THR and I had to sprint past a fast walker near the end or I may never have noticed that.

I headed out to meet THR tonight, convinced that I would have a better run simply based on that fact that I would be moving my feet forward. Not only did I take larger steps, but the first running portion started with us sprinting (again with the sprinting) past two sets of walkers. We set a much faster pace than we had been walking and, incredibly, we were able to pretty much stick to it for the rest of the run. We slowed up on the hills (of course, we're slow and still out of shape), but we still made really good time. Even during the walking portions, we walked really fast. For the first time in a month, we finished our run and we both felt really good about it. We had both worked really hard and it showed, but it felt great as well to know that we really are back into it.