PhillyGirlRuns (Slowly), Week 2 and a Debate

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day for a run!

Remember how I talked about how humbling P90X yoga was? Well, here's what else is humbling: running when you're out of shape and recovering from an injury.

I set out yesterday into the gorgeous, low-70's sunshine with the intent of doing about four easy miles. I've been able to tolerate about one run per week -- last week, I replaced Kenpo with four miles on the treadmill. The first two were steady at a 9:00 pace, the second two I changed it up and did some intervals at a tempo or mile-repeat pace. Except, well, I wasn't doing a tempo run, or mile repeats. I was doing 2-4 minute intervals, which I used to do easily at just under a 7:00 pace, at about an 8:00 pace -- and I was FEELIN' it. I mean, REALLY feelin' it. I squeezed my 4 miles in around 35-36 minutes and then hopped on the elliptical for a bit -- I was totally smoked. Legs were rubber, heartrate was through the roof.

Yesterday was sort of the same. My knee was a little sore for the first mile and a half or so, but nothing really painful, so I kept going. Life starting getting hard for me somewhere between 1.0 and 1.5 miles. I picked up the Schuylhill River path at 25th and Locust, and reached the top of the hill in front of the Art Museum at about 1.6 miles...and I pulled over and walked it out for a bit. My lungs were OK, but my legs were just struggling. I grabbed a lightpost and stretched. Stretched. And then took off again, for about a half mile.

At 21st and Winter, I internally squealed with joy when I saw that I would need to stop for a red light. Stretched again, and then when the traffic cleared, I walked for a couple of blocks before taking off at a run again. Unfortunately, I accidentally turned off my Garmin when I started back up (I've done this before), and didn't notice it for several minutes, when my legs were screamin' again and I looked down to decide whether it was OK to take another walking break.

All in all, my Garmin was on for a total of 29 minutes, in which I covered three miles. I'm guessing, based on my map, that I covered about 3.5 miles in about 33 minutes. When you figure in my couple of walking breaks, that's not so bad. But it wasn't too long ago that I was running "easy" 26-minute 5Ks with barely any effort, and now my legs are jello before I even hit two miles. I always go through this phase when I'm returning from an injury hiatus, and let me tell you, it sucks just as much every single time. Knowing that I'll improve with further training doesn't help it suck any less in the moment!

On the plus side, PhillyGuy and I are starting Week 3 of P90X. No further weight loss for me, but as of this morning I've maintained last week's 5-lb loss. Both of us have cleaned up our diets tremendously (except for last night's Easter dinner at my mom's, which involved kettle-cooked potato chips with melted blue cheese as an appetizer, at which point I threw Tony Horton out the window). I have some wicked scabs on my knees from doing push-ups, girly-style.

Between my running frustrations and the serious time dedication that P90X involves, I'm struggling internally with a question: do I even bother running Broad Street this year? I keep going back and forth. Part of me feels like, hey, I can do this -- even if I have to run/walk the whole time. Part of me feels like my knee will NEVER be reliably healed by then, and that there is just no chance I'll enjoy "running" a race where I have to run/walk or run much, much more slowly than I'm used to. I'm really struggling with this, and I might not even make an actual decision until, oh, 6am the morning of the race...but WHAT TO DO?

WWTBWD (What Would the BlogWorld Do)?