Today marks another anniversary of September 11, a day to remember and honor. Therefore, I don’t publish a silly little RunBlog post on this day. It just doesn’t feel right. I just wait until the next day and submit it for continuity purposes only.

Today’s workout begins with a small lesson in gym etiquette – something that I purposely ignored this morning.

The unwritten rule when hopping on a treadmill is to leave at least one machine between you and the next person, especially when the gym isn’t crowded. This morning, the gym was practically empty, save for one other person on the second treadmill from the end. Despite the abundance of free machines, I had calibrated my Stryd foot pod on the end machine a few weeks ago and when it’s open I use it.

Unfortunately, using that machine today was contrary to the informal treadmill etiquette. When I got on it, the woman on the one next to it gave me a bit of a stink eye, a silent question hanging in the air: “With all these empty treadmills, why in the hell choose the one right next to me?” I could have been nice and gone to use another one – I didn’t. Which is uncharacteristic for me since I’m typically the guy that goes out of his way to be nice. I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like using a different machine today.

I wasn’t there to flirt with her or anything else, I was there to get my workout in on my usual treadmill. So I shrugged off her stink eye, ignored the glare, and got to work. I was still going when she finished 20:00 minutes later and hadn’t made eye contact, attempted to engage her in a conversation, or anything. I guess she figured that I wasn’t hitting on her or being an ass, I just wanted that treadmill. Yeah, I’ve seen how too many women get hit on at gyms and know why I got the stink eye. I just didn’t care today.

Still I broke one of those unwritten rules of the gym…oh well.

Anyway,

The first few minutes of the run were a bit of a struggle. My legs couldn’t seem to find the right rhythm at 6.0 mph, even with a 5:00 minute warm-up at 3.8 mph. I spent about 5 minutes trying to get in sync. Eventually, my body figured out that I was going to run and it needed to find the most efficient way to keep up the pace.

It did.

I finished 2.0 miles at 6.0 mph feeling good enough that I decided to up the ante slightly. I increased the speed by .1 every 2 minutes until I hit the 2.8-mile mark. From there, I increased the speed at the remaining tenths until the end of my run. Interestingly, the 6.5 mph range felt more comfortable than the 6.0 mph. However, I could tell that I’m not in shape to maintain that pace for much longer than I did this morning.

Final time 3.01/29:34. Yes, I worked up a great sweat and the best thing is that I felt good doing it…well once the body figured out that we are running again.

But I’m not discouraged. I know my endurance will come back with time and consistency. The speed of yesteryear is just that yesteryear and gone. I know that I’ll never be as fast as I once was, but that’s not the goal. The goal is to be as fast as I can be at 66 in 2024, not 2023. All of my prior PR’s will be re-set to zero in 2024 and I’ll see what the new ones will be. The rest of this year is to re-establish a good mileage base, keep lifting weights and get my head where it needs to be. In reality, not in the clouds dreaming of how great I could be.

After the run, I hit the weights. I decided to go light on the upper body weights, now that I’m back to running more regularly. It’s all about balance and listening to what my body needs.

And that’s the beauty of this comeback journey. It’s not about me being the fastest or the strongest. It’s all about showing up consistently, pushing myself a little at a time, and enjoying the ride. That and avoiding needless injuries like the plague. 😁

Maybe next time I’ll find a different treadmill, but then again, I like “my” treadmill.