Over-Analyzers Anonymous

I went on my second run "back" yesterday. It was awesome, even in spite of it being 75 and humid as crap at 6 am. I'm fully back in the OMG I LOVE RUNNING OMG ITS SO AWESOME camp, because I have had zero foot pain during or after this run. I ran a mile warm-up, and then, since my neighborhood has a plethora of monster hills, I ran 3-4 minutes at an easy pace, booked it up whatever hill presented itself (for a total of 4), then walked briskly down for 2-3 minutes to catch my breath for the next mile and a half. It seems like doing that, coupled with paying really close attention to my foot position/alignment is a fantastic workout, based on how sore certain muscles in my legs are that are a) never sore, and b) probably underused, since I don't even know what muscles they are (ETA: they are my quads. Apparently they are really weak, which makes my form suuuuck). Needless to say, despite my pace still being less than desirable, I'm not stressing about that and just focusing on correcting my foot form, and developing those things called quads that are apparently supposed to be a big running muscle. 

On Saturday, I'm doing the NYRR Pride Run, which will be my longest run since I've returned to the land of the running, and I have two goals: 1) not to give a shit about overall time/pace, and 2) listen to my body, so I can keep doing form-wise what I did yesterday and take walk breaks as needed. Central Park tends to be less hilly than Inwood though, which will be nice. It'll also put me at about 10 miles for the week, which is exciting for me, after two months of NO miles per week. 

I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with running. I really enjoy it, and I'd love to be able to get up every day and go for a run. At this point, doing that makes me really concerned about both burnout and injury, since I seem to be easily prone to both of those things. I'm thinking of signing up for one of the running classes with NYRR, and also taking a break from races/training after Hartford and just focus on building my endurance/mileage for the 2013 NYC Marathon. I have a pretty lofty (for me) goal set for my next marathon, and I'd love to be able to really maximize my training for it, but properly. 

I'm also toying with the idea of a little 2 mile jog tomorrow morning to test out the new arch support insoles I ordered before I use them on Saturday. Yay running!