January 3, 2010, My First Long Run for the Year

I was quite excited to be well enough to run again last Sunday. I usually set a regular goal and a stretch goal for every run. Last Sunday, I made it my goal to run 6 rounds around the UP Academic Oval (around 13.2K) and a stretch goal of running 7 rounds.

I got up late though and got to UP at 7am. When I got there, I noticed that there were already many people going around the oval. Many of them were familiar faces. I guessed that many of these were trying to burn off the weight they gained during the holiday season. I decided to run with the new water bottle my wife gave me. It was actually quite easy to carry.

By the 3rd round, I felt tired and a bit disappointed. I thought I was supposed to be stronger than that. Anyway, I brushed away thoughts of just doing one more round and held on to my goal of 6 to 7 rounds. On my 6th round, I felt a bit better so I decided to try and speed it up a bit.

I finished 6 rounds with a time of 1:32:19, which translates to a speed of 7 minutes per km. It wasn't very fast but I still do feel it was a good workout. I did, however, feel a pain on the side of my knee about an hour after the run. The pain subsided the day after the run, but then I decided to move my next run to Wednesday, January 6 just to be give my legs it time to rest.