I know that running consecutive 3.0 miles isn’t usually that big of a deal, but today for me at least it was.

It’s huge progress.

Short Version – No, I won’t write a page and a half  every time I post about a run 🤪. Most of the time it’s just me doing a brain dump after a run and there ain’t that many brain cells left.

I finished running without stopping (3.0/31:17) for the first time since the day before I hurt my knee. I’ve come a long way since the first part of August, but I need to be careful and not attempt to do too much. The knee was a little uncomfortable to start for the first half mile or so and then figured out that I wasn’t stopping and just went into okay, let’s get it done mode. I just ran on the flattest section of road by the house, and made thing somewhat bearable since the cloud cover hid the sun most of the time, but the humidity was still in the 80% range, and it felt like temps were in the mid 80s. Not the best running conditions. Especially since I’ve been fighting a migraine since last night and usually a run takes care of things – it didn’t today. I’m wondering if the hot weather and Canadian wildfire smoke stuff is just catching up to me? Either way, I was able to run 3.0 consecutive miles so that is progress.

Long Version

To say that it’s been oppressively hot and muggy up heah in Maine over the last week is an understatement. Yeah, I know other places have dealt with this crap and worse most of the summer, so it was our turn. Even so, it still isn’t what I’m used to after 56 days of rain (6/1 to 8/31). Today temps in the low 80s and 80% humidity just didn’t thrill me.

However, I was battling my first migraine in about 15 years and it had abated enough that I figured that running might kick it to hell out of my head. So, I headed out the door and decided to stay up on top, do laps in front of the house in case things fell apart, only deal with a few dogs and the short hill, versus the bigger hills and even more dogs in either direction.

The knee was a bit grumpy to start, but it hasn’t liked running outside yet this year. It prefers the niceties of the treadmill. Finally, after grumbling for about a half mile (nothing serious), it gave up and let me know that it just wanted to get this crap over with.

After that it was more ignoring the sweatfest and just kept going. Yeah, too many people might say that running is all about getting the body in shape, but I’ll tell you what, if your mind hasn’t gotten calloused to the idea of continuous running, keeping going can be a chore in and of itself. Something beyond the complaining the body is doing while you ARE running.

When I finished the second lap, the mind was ready to go into recovery mode and start walking. The t-shirt was pretty well soaked, but the body felt like it had enough left to do another lap or two. So, I pushed the envelope and decided to go for a third consecutive mile.

Now, I would have stopped if the body actually was in distress or pain, but I was simply uncomfortable – more from the heat and humidity than anything else. The heart rate was a bit higher than I would’ve liked for the effort level, but in that kind of weather, that’s historically where I tend to be, so based on the experience I do have, I kept going.

The last mile wasn’t fun, but to me it was necessary. The body was doing what it was supposed to do and the mind needed a bit of reminding that running isn’t always going to feel good. Just part of the deal…I’m doing something hard and need to get the brain back on board with doing hard things again.

I finished with a good time for where I’m at and I was happy that I hadn’t let the mind gremlins win on that last lap going up to the top of the hill. No, I’m not ready for a steady diet of 3.0 milers or too much else, but I’m ready to start getting a bit more confidence in what I can and can’t do.

As far as the migraine went, after the run, it returned with a vengeance and finally around 2:00 PM. It allowed me to go back to being mostly human again. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of those babies and I hope it just as long before I have another.

Now, to keep doing the little things, not to be too stoopid, but most of all keep putting one foot in front of the other running and yes, walking.