back in the game

Ran today for the first time since the half. My knee was surprisingly tolerant. It made its presence known a couple of times, but not in a painful way. It was my right ankle that hurt more than anything. Seriously, something's always complaining. I can't remember when I last ran completely pain-free. I probably would be doing something wrong if I did.

5k in 34:45. Not bad, considering it's hotter than I thought. I was chilly standing outside in jeans and a tank top, but when you're running with the sun beating on you, you might as well add 30 degrees. Plus, had to wait for a traffic light twice, and walked for a couple of minutes to make sure the husband was ok. Subtract those things, and maybe I'm right around my 30-31 minute goal. Maybe.

My employer is sponsoring the 5k I'm running next weekend, which means all my coworkers will be there, which means I would like to run it really well. I'm unnecessarily nervous about that.

Plus, last night I was searching for springtime half marathons. I'd really like to try my next half in the spring, when I should be in the middle of training for the full. I feel like anything else would be too close to the Air Force half for me to have time to improve much. I found the National Marathon in DC in March. It would be perfect timing, but you have to qualify, even for the half. I'm SO close. You can qualify with a half time of 2:30, a 10k time of 1:05, or a 5k time of 31. Haven't hit any of those yet, but I've still got the 5k and the 10k this year. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, and I have no idea if I could even swing a trip to DC (although I'd love to run in DC), but now I'm strangely obsessed with being able to qualify, especially since the times are SO reachable for where I'm at right now...but it's still a challenge. Still times I haven't hit yet!

I stink now. Shower time. Felt (mostly) good to run again!