RUNNING AGAIN

I'm glad to be running again. It was almost a 3 week layoff. I told myself that perhaps it was just like a long taper period following intensive marathon training and that I would be fine once I retook to the roads...provided I didn't make myself sick again!

Well, I've run 5 times in the last 8 days and I haven't relapsed. That's the good news. But everything else has been HARD. My times have been up, my endurance down and my heart rate SO up that I fear my heart might break through my chest. Fortunately that hasn't quite happened. Still, it's a little disconcerting when my heart is beating at its maximum halfway through a not all that fast tempo workout. And tempo runs, of course, are not meant to be all out charges. Obviously I'm running too fast for the state of my current condition, but I find it hard to slow to a speed that seems, well, slow to me!

And my legs have been so sore. Calves, quads, hamstrings, everything hurts. I did some leg curls at the gym the other day for the first time in a long time. I just went to 40 pounds, not alot, for merely 8 reps. My hamstrings have been on fire ever since. This does not exactly fill me with confidence...kind of makes me feel vulnerable and ready to break. Going down steps has become challenging. Just the way I'm walking, I imagine, fails to reflect the athlete I feel inside.

Perhaps I should wear a sign: "Still Recovering From Illness"?

Oh, well. Maybe getting sick and doing almost nothing physically for 19 days is not the same as tapering. How long will it take now?