Okay, so maybe turning 43 at the end of the month has me thinking wonky but I’m not really happy about the things my body is doing.

My wife and I were supposed to run in the Army Ten Miler in October and I was bound and determined to not have a repeat of last year.  Last year I started preparing in April, stopped because I hurt my ankle in June, walked/ran/panted through one 5 mile run the week before the race and then ran in the race itself.  My 2:02 time was not very impressive to anyone, in fact if it had not been for my friend Drew Kapuscak ‘motivating’ me through the race I would have quit right about mile 2!  Drew was great and stayed with me until the 9 mile mark and ran the last mile (I sure he was completely refreshed) so that he wouldn’t have that embarrassing 2 at the beginning of his time as well.

This year, I started practicing the week we signed up (April Fools Day, who’s the fool now).  We had a decent path figured out in Lorton so that we could run 3, 5, or 7 miles depending on which way we went.  I only ran once or twice a week since I knew the body would not react favorably to this.  After our move to Woodbridge, we have a great, wide, asphalt path to run on that is 4 or 5 miles depending on the path.  When we found out Debbie would be deploying to Pakistan for the entire second half of the year, she asked me if I wanted to sell my bib and let someone else run the race in my place.  Picture the little angel and devil sitting on opposite shoulders debating which way this one would turn out.  A couple of days later, I decided to run the race for my wife to show my support for what she was going through.  There was great mirth and joy in the household that day!

So what’s this all about?  Well, I’m really learning that the body just doesn’t recover like it used to.  I’ve never, ever, ever been an avid runner but I used to be able to run a few miles one day and be ready to run again the next day if I had to.  Not at 43 baby, uh-uh, nope, not, and several other choice words that I refuse to type out!  It now takes my body two full days to recover from a 5 mile run!  What a rip off!  Does this thing come with a warranty?

So, if you have any ideas or suggestions about what I can do to make the recovery time go quicker, I’m all ears (since that’s the only part of my body that doesn’t hurt right now).  I’m hoping that once I drop these extra 15-20 pounds I’m carrying, the body will see fit to allow me to run a little more often but I’m not really sure, having never had this problem before.