Back in the saddle

Ah, I remember why I loved running in Houston – the sweat drenching humidity, and the follow-on sweat that lasts for hours.

Summer has arrived in New England. Which is like saying that spring has arrived in Texas, but I’m pretty convinced that I am going to make this our home, so I’m going to whine about mild heat and humidity just like the rest of us Yankees. In truth, today was my favorite kind of day for running – somehow, I just don’t feel like I’ve actually worked without being drenched and sweat and hotter than the bejesus.

Running with Christian has been improving my pace, BTW. I kicked out about 2.7 today in about 22 minutes. Made me happy as my goal was just to squeeze in about 20 minutes of running, just long enough to push myself all the way aerobic, but still make it to work in a decent time. Not running in the mornings has made it way too easy to blow it off.

So I’ve got that going for me.

I’m still sore from too much manual labor for an information worker/engineer over the weekend, but had no problems when I was actually running. One of the benefits that’s come back from at least a couple months of concerted efforts to get back in shape has been the rapid return of the fabled “runner’s high.” My Navy buddy Steve and my leftist/skating/high school buddy Johnny Rollerfeet have both insisted that I must be on crack for claiming a runner’s high, but it works. Back when I started running again, it would take a good half hour or so of effort to get the endorphins flowing; now it’s almost instantaneous. (reference last Thursday’s run with Chris). As soon as the heart rate is up, the adrenalin kicks in, pain goes away, and my feet feel light.

Now, it’s time to start working on endurance. Which means getting to bed reliably around 10, so I can get up in time to do long runs before work.

Sigh.