The last two days (since my first “run” after a 2-month hiatus) have been painful. I am genuinely surprised how much I lost by not running and only biking the last 2 months. I thought I would be a little slower than normal, but I didn’t anticipate having so much pain after such a slow outing. I was lucky enough to get a couple leg rubs over those two days and even though I wasn’t feeling 100% today, I felt good enough to go back out there and really hurt myself.

Instead of trying to never walk during my run, I decided I should start trying to run faster… even if it kills me and I have to walk a bit. I’ll still make sure I go the full distance, but I need to get some faster segments in there. With that in mind, I started off strong. I hit the light across Carmel Country green and I figured I would get a good time on that first mile. I did. I even set a PR for the hill climb (which is only possible when you hit the light green). But then I was dead tired. I hit the light to cross Del Mar Heights red, which gave me a good 30 seconds to catch my breath. I guess that wasn’t enough, because I still walked a bit on that next mile.

I walked a couple times on the way back, but for the most part I managed to keep running (except for the big hill climb). All in all it turned out to be a pretty good run. I am definitely hurting, but I think this is the right way to improve my speed overall.