Playing on Phoneline

I took my time getting ready in the morning (no one to meet at any particular time, no worries about the heat), and arrived at Sabino a little after 8am. I noticed a fellow runner prepping and realized it was a friend. He asked what I was planning, and when I replied, "10 miles of wandering until my Garmin says stop," he asked if I wanted to do Phoneline. Sure thing!

I warned him I'm slow and still recovering, and we took off at a decent clip. I ran more of the ups than usual in the first couple of miles. We discussed my injury and what it most likely is (tendonitis - or tennis elbow in the knee, as he put it). We stopped for lots of pictures. He ran ahead, then I ran ahead. We played and leapfrogged and ran and walked and talked.

It was one of the best runs I've had in awhile - completely unplanned. With about a mile and half to go, he went ahead for good - he was planning a second lap and needed to get moving so as not to be out too late in the heat, and I needed to walk a little more. I finished just as he was finishing his break at his "aid station" and snagged a couple pretzels before heading off to Starbucks.

I've managed to hit 17 miles per week for about 5 weeks straight now; that includes the weeks I have Ash on the weekend and can't do a long run. This is slightly surprising to me - 1. less mileage than expected on a non-Ash-weekend week and 2. more mileage than expected on an Ash-weekend week. I'd like to be further along in my training by now, but I have to take care of my knee. If I don't get trained in time for Pemberton, no sweat. I'll find another race scheduled further out to run instead. My knee is handling runs well right now and I like that. I'm also getting faster during my mid-week runs, which I'm thrilled about. I'm looking forward to upping my miles gently, happily and pain-free over the next few months. I need to make sure my knee doesn't get re-injured, as everything else in my life has gone kaBOOM and I really need to keep running to keep my sanity :)