a goal

Yesterday, I jogged for 25 min. Maybe I failed, though--not at jogging for 25 min, which was what I'd expected to do, but by doing the proper workout. I felt ok throughout, just the usual general stiffness/inflammation, but around 18-19 minutes, I felt a different twinge. For the past month or so, ever since I got off the restriction diet, I've had little twinges crop up around my knees, rarely the same one two days in a row, but mostly around my right knee. I think it's fatigue affecting alignment. Same thing like that old ITBS (old=gone=knock wood!) So I felt this twinge and decided to shake it out a bit, and I did, but then I kept going. Maybe that was a sign: that was the last thing that needed doing and then I should have stopped. My reason for cutting back my easy runs is to go by what my body wants, not by numbers, but I still seem to be stuck on numbers. Part of the problem is wanting to get back quickly, or at least not spending an extra ten minutes walking home. Maybe I need to run around the block so that I can stop exactly when I need to. LOL

There's one woman who used to run on a particular short stretch by the Canal over and over again. Now maybe I understand that better.

Anyway, yesterday, I decided to see how long a particular loop is--I'd run it many times, but not from my new house. I went down the Canal to the river, over one bridge and then back over another--well, there are more than two bridges to choose from, but the ones I chose were the ones closest to downtown: "The Bridges". A popular lunchtime running route for office workers. Usually it's about 5K. I'm a bit further off, plus going to the Canal and then the bike path by the river and then back to the Canal is a bit of a detour, so it was nearly 5 miles for me. I think I would like to run this route often because it's got considerable inclines and, though I won't be able to hit the river bike trails during winter, I can go on the sidewalks above, and all of it is plowed regularly. It would be a great route to run everyday; until I'm there, I think I can manage two times a week. And, when that becomes easy, I can extend to a farther bridge, or do the loop twic, or make it an out and back....there are possibilities.

I still haven't ditched the possibility of doing the Winterman full, sad to say, and running the bridges a lot last winter was excellent preparation for it. sometimes I ended up doing six bridges, just popping over, going down to the next one, popping back over, etc, etc....admittedly this was usually when I was late to run club and was going about hoping to catch them. LOL

Today, I'm not sure what I'll do. It'll depend on how I feel. An hour would be nice.