Legends of the Falls

Over the past month or so, I’ve been trying to get back into shape by running on a regular basis.  It was actually quite timely, because my first day of running was actually July 4th.  It was the following day that Larry posted his entry about getting serious about doing something about his weight.  BTW, Larry, let’s see some updated figures!

 I had decided I had to get serious too because a few weeks prior when I was packing for our Battle Creek golf trip I tried on some of my golf shorts, and most of them didn’t fit because I had gotten too fat.  I didn’t start running at that time because back in mid-May, I was playing basketball in our driveway with Eric and was attempting to save a ball going out of bounds.  I was right on the edge of the driveway and rolled my right ankle and went down like a pile of bricks.  I was in maybe more pain then I’ve ever felt in my life.  I didn’t see stars, but I did see one bright sun.  Eric was to later say that that was probably the stupidest thing he’s ever seen me do.  The kids are at the age where they show us no sympathy.

 It ends up that I not only sprained my ankle, but several days later I realized that I had strained my achilles.  So due to that injury I wasn’t able to start running until it had healed significantly.  It still is a little tender, but it actually gives me no problems when I’m running.  It’s more bothersome in the morning when I wake up and everything has tightened up.

After a few weeks of running, I decided to start a log of my runs, so I’ve posted it here.  Sorry, no time to make any graphs, but maybe on my next update.

I usually run at Moraine Hills State Park a few miles from home.  They’ve got 3 interconnected loops of cinder trails that are great for running.  I usually do the 3.73 mile loop, but have occasionally added a second for a 6.2 mile run.

I haven’t lost much weight, maybe 4 pounds, but my clothes are fitting much better. My goal is to first run the 6.2 mile run in under an hour.  I should be able to do that relatively soon.  As soon as the weather cools down a bit, I’ll give it a go.  My other goal is to see if I can do the 3.73 mile loop in under 30 minutes.  That’s going to be the tough one, but hopefully with another couple of months of serious running and some 50 degree weather and low humidity (as opposed to the 80’s and high humidity I’ve been running in, I just may have a shot of doing it.

 I’ll work on getting my stats to publish a little better, but right now I’ve got to run.  Not literally, I already ran today and it was tough.  I hate running in the morning.  My times are always slower because my body just isn’t ready to perform and I think it goes into shock.