Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Over-Excited: Too Fast, Too Soon

I think I need to run alone for a while.

Wait, what? I can’t believe I just wrote that. I love running with other people! It's not about competition, it's about having company.

But the “problem” is that I get way too excited when I run with friends. As you may know, I’ve been staging my comeback. And so far I’ve been really good about following my own advice. For 3 weeks I only ran 20 minutes every other day and did excessive amounts of physical therapy (PT). But now I’ve gotten to the point where I think I can start running more. And maybe more often. (YAY!)

On Saturday I ran 50 minutes with my new roommates. And it felt great! (YAY!)

Then on Monday morning I ran 30 minutes at a pretty fast pace with a new running friend. (YAY!)  It felt hard, but in a good way. All I could think of as I walked to work was Wow, I feel like a real person again! And that is glorious.

Last night I went to practice, just to run some laps while my teammates worked out. One of my friends was running mileage as well, so we left the track for the bike path.

I’m sorry, I have to go slow today, I cautioned her.

Yep, this is perfect, I’m fine with going slow, she agreed.

But then we started running…and talking…and running…and talking…and Chatty Cathy that I am, before I knew it my legs were running just as fast as my mouth. Over excited. I need to calm down and run slower! 

I stopped at 38 minutes, while she continued on. Phew! Either we were running fast or I’m just extraordinarily out of shape! Or both.

So next time I will make a conscious effort to run at an easy pace. There’s no rush. I can run longer if I run slower. Running fast could re-injure me. These are the things I tell myself. 

Does anyone else have this problem?