Good morning!
I will not start the celebration of winter being behind us, but besides a few days of strong winds, we are now enjoying more spring like temps. Yay!
Today I am especially thrilled to have a beautiful spring day for which to run the Reds Shoe Barn 5 Miler. By race time the temperature should be a comfortable 45 to 50 degrees and the winds will be minimal. Great weather for one of my top five favorite races.
While I am excited about the great weather to run “Reds” in today, I am not so excited about my actual running. I have not actually been getting any time in my running shoes over the past 2 weeks and my legs certainly do not feel “race ready,” After running the “Run Before You Crawl” 5K back in March, my arthritic hips both struggled to recover. Additionally, the allergy season has kicked my butt considerably, so my running has been nearly nonexistent.
So, today will be an interesting conundrum. What I love about “Reds,” is the course which is runs through familiar routes that I have always enjoyed. What I fear about “Reds” today is the course, which features many long stretches of up hills. In the past I trained on much of this route and the hills were a great part of the course for me. Today, besides my training not being close to where I would like it, the hills will challenge my hips mightily. A wonderful course, but not an easy one!
Do not get me wrong, I am grateful to be able to run “Reds” today, and I am excited to go enjoy the race. My strategy is to keep my heart rate nearer 130 if not lower, but that will be a challenge because of the hill climbs early in the course. I am fully prepared to take some short walk bouts if needed, so there is no part of me hoping for a finish time under 50 minutes.
I have long known my hips would continue to progress to the point of challenging my running, and this is certainly playing out. I must learn to adjust if I want to continue to enjoy running. Today is one of those days. Should be interesting!
Time to get a moving. Have a great day and God Bless!
Mike
