Today is February 5, 2025. The last time I ran was, as mentioned in the title, December 30, 2024. That was 37 days ago, or just over five weeks. The last time I ran was on the river trail, with a brief trip out to the sidewalk, where I tripped and landed hard on my hands. I wanted to give my hands time to heal a bit before running again, even though, as you probably know, you don’t use your hands to run. Or at least not in the same way you use your feet.
Still, it seemed prudent.
Then the infection resumed, this time in my kidney and I spent 11 consecutive days visiting hospitals for IV treatment. Then I felt I should give my body time to recover from the infection, the antibiotics and other miscellaneous trauma.
Then it snowed.
I actually checked the river trail yesterday and as of then, the trail, though covered in a few cm of snow, actually seemed like it might be doable for running. The snow is very light and pliable, not hard and icy. I don’t know if it’s still that way now, as we are experiencing overnight lows well below freezing at the moment.
Regardless, I didn’t think it was a good idea to tax myself further on my first run in 37 days by doing it in the snow and in freezing temperatures, so onto the treadmill I went.
And I felt every one of those 37 days off. Normally, a 2.5 km run is a blip for me, but I could feel the burn (not the good kind) about a km in. Around the 8-minute mark, I briefly paused the workout to give my lungs a break. I paused again around the 13-minute mark (I probably could have pushed through, since it was only another minute, but I was not feeling adventurous).
My stats may be slightly better, especially for BPM, because of the breaks, but not by too much. Each was only a few seconds.
One stat that doesn’t show is my peak heart rate–163! That is quite high for a treadmill workout and a good indication of how soft and flabby I am.
Here’s to becoming gradually less soft and flabby over the coming weeks, hopefully while staying upright the entire time.
Run 906 (treadmill)
Speed: 9.0 (9.0)
Incline: 1 (1)
Pace: 5:41 km (5:38/km)
Time: 14:13 (28:19)
Distance: 2.51 km (5.03 km)
Calories burned: 166 (330)
BPM: 141 (140)
Parenthetical numbers are from the previous treadmill run.
