The junk run

For about the 50th time in the past couple of years, I started running again after a not insignificant layoff (sorry, George Orwell, but I just didn't feel like saying insignificant).  It seems like the 2nd run after a too long break feels like I'm emptying my body of junk.  The first run feels fine.  I've got so much stored-up fuel that there's no problem, but that second one hurts.  Given a three mile run, the first mile just feels stiff.  The second is where the pain lives.  Every single extra slice of pizza and every bit of junk that I put in my body since I stopped running a few months ago feels the need to express its disappointment in my decision to resume running.  Maybe it's my body exacting a petty revenge for its mistreatment.  I don't know.  What I do know is that if I give in during the junk run and stop before the sludge works its way out through my pores, it's a much longer road back to fitness.  However, if I push through that second mile and keep going, I start feeling lighter.  I stop shuffling along and actually stride a bit.  I'm definitely tired, but there is a change.

I had that junk run today.  It was made worse by the various thoughts running through my head.  Most of them were focused on my possibly rash decision to enter the Chilli Challenge Adventure Triathlon.  I meant to do a triathlon earlier this summer, but my clear lack of running as well as my obvious lack of bike and abject failure in getting a bike, I didn't.  Now, I'm semi-committed to doing this triathlon that not only includes biking and running, but also KAYAKING!  My last (and possibly only) experience with a kayak was during my honeymoon in Belize.  There were some sea kayaks on the beach for us to use, so we thought it would be fun.  Nobody bothered to tell us and we had no idea that we needed to drain the kayak before heading out.  Full of water, the kayak gained a lot of momentum rotating around its various axes and we were in the water more often that in the kayak.  The entire experience was topped off by my actually tipping the kayak over not sideways, but end over end.  So I've got that going for me, which isn't so nice.  I haven't been on a bike for about 6 years and haven't owned one the past 4 after running out of room on the moving truck and donating it to a student that helped us load the truck.  As I struggled to finish my measly 3 miles today, I realized that the run is almost 5 miles after a 2.2 mile paddle and 20 mile bike ride.  This ought to be interesting.