Pathetic Poser or Recovering Athlete? You Decide!

It's been 11 days since my 5-miler. Which was also my last workout of any kind. E. Le. Ven.

Point is, my knees finally started speaking to me again. Oy, was it bad. Not as painful as in the past, but stiff enough I could hardly walk for a couple of days and WH had to carry Baby Bear up and down the stairs for me.

It was a pretty nice day for July (80 and sunny with with a nice stiff breeze) and I wanted to do something, so I decided to walk my friend's taco dip bowl back to her place. I happen to know she lives precisely one mile from my house and a two mile walk on a lovely summer day sounded like the perfect way to test my knees.

My brain turned off and my body went through my getting-ready-to-run routine. Running shoes, running socks, running shorts, technical top, sun visor, sunscreen (oooouch, found the spot on my shoulder where the Bear scratched me this morning), lap watch, cell phone, keys, bottle of Nuun... (notice what's missing? Yep. Running bra. DOH.)

THEN the new half of this little ritual... Slather the Bear with sunscreen, unfold the jogging stroller, get him strapped in, fill a sippy with water, get him a cold teether, put his sun hat on, pick his sun hat up off the floor, put his sun hat on, take his sun hat out of his mouth... repeat half a dozen times, give up, let him chew on the damn hat. Put sunglasses on him so he'll have something to chew on after he gets bored with the hat.

Yes, this process can take longer than the workout itself. But we gots to do what we gots to do.

It was supposed to be a two mile walk, like I said. But I felt really good. And I got more sleep than usual last night. And the voices in my head insisted on pointing out that I was wearing $100 running shoes, an Ironman lap watch, an Ironman sun visor, pushing an Ironman jogging stroller and carrying a bottle of freaking Nuun.

They quite helpfully pointed out that, if I failed to run, I was in fact a giant freakin' poser.

So I turned my 2 mile walk into a 2.5 mile WRWRW in .5 mile intervals. First half mile run felt hard and I was upset with myself until I checked my watch and realized I was running an 11:50 pace (as opposed to my usual 14:00). The second run interval I really misguesstimated and wound up at a 15:00 pace, but the lack of bra was probably to blame. It's hard to run while trying to hold your chest with one hand and push a stroller with the other.

So, there you have it. I keep trying to tell myself today I acted in a manner consistent with an athlete recovering from injuries. But honestly, I felt like a big ol' poser.