A Fast Five - for me anyway...

After this weekend's big accomplishment (10 miles without wanting to die), I took a few days off. My hip is still aching, and I have my first ever 10K race this weekend. I know that I perform better when I take 1-2 days off between runs, so I wanted to take it a bit easy this week. With all that being said, that means I took Sunday, Monday and well, um, Tuesday as rest days. That meant today required a 5 mile run.

I got home a tad early, so I was able to hit the trail not too long after 5pm. The weather was about 62-63 degrees with a slight breeze. Perfection. I've heard runners talk about those times when they feel "light" on the trail, like it doesn't take a ton of effort to take step after step. I have never felt that way. It always feels like a chore, and I can feel every pound of my frame on every step. But today it just didn't seem as hard. The first mile was a tad tough, but it's like all the roughness was washed away by the breeze by Mile 2. At the turnaround, I felt like I gained a whole new gust of energy.

The only problem was my damn running shorts. I have a pair of Adidas running shorts that I bought at TJ Maxx years ago. I wear them out occasionally, but not a ton. With today's lovely weather, I really wanted my snow white legs to get a bit of sun. Bad idea. It's like my lady bits just wanted to eat my shorts. Sorry if that is just TMI, but "dammit, shorts!!!" Every 32-25 steps (yes, I counted), I had to pull the right hem of my shorts down as they kept working up. The left side was fine. Just the right. By the end of the run, I had a big ol' raw spot on the inside of my right thigh. I know this means the shorts are too small, but damn it - today could have been a darn near perfect run for me. When all was said and done, my average time was 10:30/mile. For me, it's like I was running with the breeze. And that was even with ouchy shorts.

Great run though - great run.