I think I learned a lesson today that... well, all I can say is "it sure took long enough for me to figure it out".
Since the beginning of March I have been more diligent about my running than I was in the first two months of 2019; as you probably guessed, the weather was a big reason. Today I ran what I call the "Willo-Esque Loop, a three-mile run through a local neighborhood by that name, and for variety's sake I decided to run it in the opposite direction from the way I usually do. So I did my stretching exercises and then stepped out into the crisp Spring air. To get to the start (where I usually finish) I had to walk along a road that is not the safest for running, so I did an easy run along the portion that was runner-friendly and walked the part that seemed unsuitable for running.
Once I got to the start of the Loop I started my timer and headed up the road. As I ran, I checked my time regularly and wondered what was goin on: My time was markedly better that it had been in recent runs. This was especially remarkable because the Willo-Esque Loop was a slight downhill run the way I usually ran it, which meant it was slightly uphill now that I was running the course in reverse. Yeah, I had been working on my stride, but my time was a LOT better even than it had been in my most recent runs.
My time today was quite a few minutes better than it had ever been before. I wondered how this could be, and then I realized something: Every run I'd done previously, I'd warmed up by just doing stretching exercises. This was the first time I'd done a few mionutes of (admittedly light) exercise as part of my warm-up! How about that...
WARM-UPS SHOULD BE MORE THAN JUST STRETCHING. THEY SHOULD INCLUDE A FEW MINUTES OF LIGHT EXERCISE, TOO!
I will mention I was told this by the folks at the YMCA back when I started there five years ago, but I guess in the past year or two I kinda sorta overlooked it.
Think I'll try to keep this in mind as I do my workouts this week, and in the weeks to come.
Oh, and here's a photo of me at the end of today's run. To answer the question I'm sure you're wondering about: Yep, I did.
