Just Happy to be Running

This morning was one of those "I'm just happy to be running" type of runs. It felt (was) very slow, it felt (was) creaky, and I was not about to try anything stupid like pushing the pace to something even resembling my typical slow effort. I even thought about turning around and cutting the whole thing short, but then I figured that it's these types of runs that make the difference in the end. Although my deliberations had more to do with the dreaded "listening to your body" thing and less with the "I can't stand the monotony" thing, in the end I continued and made it through the planned distance of 15km. The route was the usual one, and I think part of the boredom can be attributed to this fact. I will have to come up with another route, but today I decided to just go on autopilot since my brain was as tired and uninspired as my body.

The source of my consternation was my right ankle, the wonky one, as it felt rather tight and somewhat painful in the Achilles and Peroneal Tendons. I think that my body needs to go through a measure of this type of thing as it adapts to longer mileage, but it always puts a bit of fear into me to have this happen in the middle of a three-week higher mileage training cycle. If this was how I felt leading into a recovery week I'd be much happier.

This evening we're off to London (Ontario, that is) for another weekend baseball tournament and so I will have an opportunity to do my Sunday morning long run through the city where I spent a year studying audio engineering just before my first son was born. It will be neat to explore it a bit on foot, perhaps run past my old apartment, and just check out streets and trails that I never got to experience as a non-runner a decade ago. I just hope I don't get lost!