Running again

We've had an unseasonable warm stretch of weather during February here in Chicagoland. So on Friday, with nothing much to do, I took a walk on my break during work. I walked north on Orleans St. As I got to Oak St, I looked up and saw a billboard for the Shamrock Shuffle 8k race on Sunday April 2.

I felt a desire stirring up inside of me again. The last time and the only time that I ran this race was in 2014. I ran the 4.97 miles in 35:01, which was a pace of 7:03. Out of over 30,000 runners, I finished. 1,259th. I felt really good about my performance and I knew I could get even better.

But then my dreams took a turn. Six weeks later, I was newly unemployed and I suffered a serious injury to both my legs, especially my lower right quadricep. Since then, I have only run occasionally on a treadmill, I have not run in a race. Rather, I've opted for doing DDP Yoga at home. Don't get me wrong, I love the home workouts. But I get this great feeling and satisfaction that I've really worked hard and accomplished something when I complete a vigorous run.

I decided I wanted to run again. And tonight I ran 2.5 miles in 20 minutes. Now if I kept that up, I'd finish in 40 minutes, which would be pretty good. But that's still five minutes slower than what I ran three years ago.

The only thing I need to figure out is where I'm going to train. There is a local gym that's offering $1 memberships and they're open 24/7. On the surface, that sounds great. But the question is how long does the $1 go for. Is it a day? Is it a week, a month? Basically I need to train for six weeks. I'm willing to pay a little bit, but I'll be very interested to see what the catch is for a $1 membership fee.

If the fitness club doesn't work, I can also try to work out at my old high school. They have a pretty good gym over there and I'm pretty sure I can use it since I'm an alumnus.

Now let's assume the training aspect comes together. I have a six-week training plan mapped out, where I run four days a week, cross train two days a week, and rest on one. I intend to leave a short post after every workout to not only track my progress, but to also keep me accountable. To maximize my effort, it is important that I not take one day off. And I intend to give this 8k the best I can.