Starting Over/Slacker

I took a week off and did not exercise Sunday through Friday due to this calf injury thing I have going on.  Well, almost a week.  By Saturday I felt like a real slacker.  I decided to see if I my six days off was enough.  I went to my local gym lifted a few weights and then hit the indoor track for a three mile jaunt.  I wore one compression sock on the bad calf.  And yes, wearing one compression sock is funnier looking than wearing two.   I ran a good pace and felt pretty good. On my third mile I decided to turn it up some and run at a quicker pace.  Another guy was running on the track who was much younger than me.  I passed him on the second lap of my last mile.  I could hear him behind me on the remaining laps.  I kept the pace up and he never passed me.  My last mile was the fastest of the three I ran.  I know it had to do with me not wanting to get passed.  As I was leaving the gym the guy that was running behind me, asked how much I had run and told me he had been trying to keep up with me.  That was a good feeling.

When I got home my oldest child wanted to go walking at Veteran's Park.  I still felt pretty good so I changed into my trail shoes and off we went.  We ended up walking over three miles.  It took about an hour to do that and I got to spend some quality time talking with my oldest.  

These two runs, one was really a walk,  were a good start to getting back on track.  The first run really made me realize that when I get pushed a little bit I perform better.  Now I just need to figure out how to internally motivate and push myself every time I run and/or workout.  

Funny thing happened after we finished our walk.  I forgot to stop my GPS watch.  It was a very cool day so I had the window down when we drove off.    I never lost the signal.  A half mile down the road I heard my watch beep to let me know I hit my fourth mile.  Needless to say that was my best half mile split of the day!