Good, then suck, then okay, then great, etc

So, I've been out of the running loop for a while. At first, it was an attack of laziness, then when I decided to throw myself enthusiastically back into running, I hurt myself. I'm good like that.
I took a couple months off to let the leg rest, and I've been going to the chiropractor. There is still some mystery pain that I'm choosing to ignore, but it's mostly great.

As I think about it, I'm leaning more & more away from climbing Half Dome again in August. I have a race one week after the Yosemite trip, and a) it took me about 3 days to walk fully upright after climbing it last year (but I still rejoice in that "you're doing alarmingly well!" from the gift shop clerk in the park), and b) this pesky leg. I don't want to have to miss another race, so I should not do something so gigantic. Grrrr....That's okay. There's always the following year. Or even just later in the season, I can make my friend/ex-Yosemite ranger take me up.

Back to the point! (or Quick to the point, to the point, no fakin'.) I am determined to do this running thing right (as in "correctly") now. I've always been a bit spazzy & half-a$$ed about it, and I am trying to listen to my body & be consistent.

What is my body telling me? A number of things:

1) Loosen up those fricking laces! I have had a constant battle with my shoes since becoming an athlete, and I often will change the lacing a couple times in a week. I want my ankles to be supported, but then my arch falls asleep, or my toes feel to loose, etc. I finally decided to stop trying to strangle my pronating feet into submission & I loosened the laces, and it's great, especially on the trail.
2) Warm up more, you dork! I learned a long time ago that my legs need to warm up quite a bit before turning on the gas, yet my impatience often means that I didn't do it. No more. As frustrating as it is, I shall walk- not jog!- walk a slow mile, mosey even, before starting my fast walk or running.
3) Slow down! On the treadmill, I can go fairly fast (relatively speaking). Even doing my splits and trying to barely not walk, I would end up between 5.0-6.0, which I felt was a decent jog. No more. I realized out on the trail the other day that I'm not going nearly that fast when I'm running, and I can then run more often. I had been starting out with 1 minute of running & 3 minutes of walking, but on the trail I was doing 1:2 or even 1:1. So, today, as painful as it was, I tried to not go above 4.5 on the treadmill (oh, it was hard. gave in twice). And you know what? I had no problem doing 1:2 for almost an hour. Was it as fast as I would like? Nope, but I won't hurt myself and I can go longer.

My next race is the inaugural Santa Rosa Marathon, which will go right by my house on the lovely creek (that red bridge is at the end of my street), and I can walk to the starting line in about 2 minutes. Yes, I know that I could run all of that on my own whenever I want, but I don't. At least not 13 miles' worth. I'm pretty excited, and I'm looking forward to beating my time from the 2008 Kaiser 1/2 I did in a sweatshirt, poncho, & gloves, leaning into the wind & rain along the coast. This has GOT to be better.

Oh, I learned one more thing: I MUST figure out my heartrate watch & use it. Timing splits via songs on the MP3 player is more difficult than it's worth.