As a child my parents dutifully enrolled me in every sport/activity in search of the one that would eventually stick. I was a tiny ballerina, an eager bowler, a reluctant soccer player, a tomboy Girl Scout, a deep-deep-roving-right-fielder in softball, and eventually a high school track star. I probably could have been a great softball player if I just weren’t afraid of the ball, or if I could throw, or if I didn’t have anxiety that I’d let everyone on my team down if I messed up. You know what I could do? I could steal bases. That’s when the switch was flipped and the light went on… I was fast.

I took up sprinting when I was 13 and I won races, lots of them. 100y, 220y, 4×100 relay, 110 hurdles. (Yep, we were still running yards back in the day). I was undefeated in junior high. I was undefeated in the 220 my senior year… until finals (yeah, I know!) and led the league in the 100. There is nothing like the adrenaline rush of taking the blocks and unleashing your speed during a race.

Running is how I gauge fitness. It’s my baseline. Everything I ever learned about fitness I learned through the eyes of an experienced runner. Over the course of my adult life I’ve spent plenty of time running. Not sprinting anymore, but building up distance. My PT jokes about how hard it is to turn fast twitch muscles into slow twitch muscles and he also isn’t shy about telling me that I’m weaker now because I run more. I SUCK at running long distances.

I’ve got two running events coming up in a very short period of time. Our self hosted Firecracker Run on the 4th of July (9 miles) and Blood, Sweat & Beers on the 22nd (5.7 miles) which is a Fleet Feet race. After yesterday’s run I’m noticing that I really need to get some more time on my feet. Probably something I should have paid attention to a month ago.

On a positive note, my back hasn’t been bothering me as much. I’m assuming it’s all the work I’m putting in, but I’m going to add that my lack of mileage lately has helped as well. Let’s hope it’s just helping speed up the healing process and not indicative of lifestyle changes that should be made.

The weather should be cooler this week so I’m hoping that means I can get a few evening runs in. I need to start getting bike time in before work as well. Time to do work!!!

Stay safe out there and as always… keep kicking ass gently.