a long run

Sunday morning presented itself as cold and raw as I lay deep under the covers of my warm bed, not conducive in the least to my planned LSD of four miles in my slow return running after a ten-month lay-off due to injuries.  My cell phone told me it was 39 degrees and it felt like 32 degrees with the steady wind gusting to 15 mph, which I could hear blowing outside as it rattled my bedroom windows.

I got up and went downstairs and had breakfast instead of heading outdoors for my planned run.  Tomorrow, I told myself, I'll run tomorrow instead and take my third day off today in a row instead.

My sloth, induced by a desire not to be cold for an hour as I ran, bothered me all day as I basically did nothing all day except mostly fret about so easily returning to my lethargic ways of the past year as I healed from my achilles strain and put on several dozen pounds.  Pulling invasive tree-killing clinging vines from high up in the top branches of the holly and evergreen trees in my yard in the progressing afternoon, I determined that it had warmed up to about 48 degrees with very little wind and a steady sunny sky just like the weather forecast had predicted, so I decided to put my long run for the week behind me and go out for four slow miles before the sun got too low and caused chilling shadows on the bike trail behind my house.

I put on my running togs and ankle braces, did my bicep curls with my twenty-five pound dumbbell, stretched my ankles and feet on the curb and set out up the street to burn a local mile in the neighborhood before I hit the W&OD Trail for a three mile out-and-back shuffle.  Before I knew it, I was on the trail, starting to sweat despite my minimal short-sleeve shirt and the chilly environment, feeling good about being out there and feeling alive and running again.

To be sure, several people passed me as I plodded along breathing heavily, but I didn't care because I was going to get my longest run since last spring done and it was going to go well, I could tell.  At the far end of my out-and-back I passed by my man Trevor, just coming off his duty soliciting money from passing motorists at the light on Lee Highway and the exit ramp from EB I-66 and we sat on a bench and talked for awhile while I cooled off and regained my breath and he waited for his Lyft ride to take him back to the homeless shelter for the night.

Our ketchup conversation over, I set out on the last mile and a half to finish my run and return home with a spring in my step, feeling rejuvenated by my ten-minute pause.  The period of ragged breathing as the first half-mile that passed under my feet came and went quickly, and the last mile thereupon of my four mile run went by quickly and easily, although I broke out in a sweat all over again.

I even started noticing the colorful vegetation along the trail, the native spring flowers along the paved pathway and the leaves starting to come out on trees lining the embankment.  I reflected wistfully on the many past running buddies I've had who have all moved away or moved on as mostly I run solo now, invisible mostly on the trail at my age, Rhea, Leah, David, John, Ashley, Markus and several others.   

It's a long trail to return to running after such a long layoff and so much weight gained as old as I have become, but I'm glad the first dreadful month of feeling like I'm dying every run is now behind me.  Eight pounds lighter and tons more determined to keep forging on, increasing my distance and pace slowly in a planned manner, things are definitely looking up as spring brings ever better weather for my return to health and running.