Sometimes, “easy” runs aren’t that easy. Last night I ran in the evening, after the heat started to subside. It was still pretty warm, but far from excruciating. The trail that I ran on has a nice canopy of trees so I was in the shade for a majority of the 2-mile run. There were a few others on the trail, mostly couples and families. There was one woman who was riding a kind of cruiser bike and don’t ask me why, but she kind of reminded me of the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz. She passed by me twice and both times I had to giggle a little.
It should have been a good run; a nice, easy 2-mile run. Instead, I felt clumsy, stiff, and slow. It was one of those runs where my feet felt so heavy, they’d barely come off the ground. My stiff joints are turning me into my mother. (Sorry, Mom! No offense, but you have had knee surgery and you can officially order from the senior citizen menu. I should be moving around better than you!) I even ate a couple of bugs. Nice!
Yes, easy runs are actually sometimes hard. I was trying to run a couple of miles to “run the junk out” after Wednesday’s challenging track workout. I don’t know if I accomplished that, but I have to be happy with myself that at least I ran. I could have slowed into a walk at any moment during the run, but I kept going. While I was doing some post-run stretching, I just had to remind myself that improvement comes. Slowly maybe, but it will come.
