October 31st: Boo!

OK, it’s time to get back at it. It’s really past time to get back at it.

The morning turned frenetic in a hurry. I had to drive my daughter to the bus transfer again -- but after waiting at the train gates for TWO trains, we pulled into the high school just as her bus was pulling out. After a half-mile of beeping and high-beams, the driver figured it out and pulled over, and my daughter was able to get on. Otherwise, I was facing a drive all the way to Wall Township and back.

I got back to the house a couple minutes before 7:00, so I figured I had time for a 5k or so. Not a big run, but probably not the worst way to get back into things after a week and a half.

I have to say, I’ll be glad when we set the clocks back this weekend. It’s weird starting a run at 7:00 a.m. in the dark. But it was a good temperature, so in the spirit of Halloween, I threw on what I’m pretty certain is

my only orange article of clothing and got moving.

My pace surprised me. I assumed I’d take it slow to get back into the swing of things. But being agitated after the school-bus chase, I guess I had some energy to work out. I realized by a half-mile in that I was moving pretty good -- not as fast as that crazy under-8:00 5k I did a few weeks ago, but still pretty fast.

I hit 3 miles at about 26:00 and decided to pick up the pace for a bit. Did another .44 miles at a 7:38 pace. Overall: 3.44 miles, 29:24, 8:32/mile. Not bad for an ease-back-in run, right?

I also learned a valuable nutrition lesson over the past couple of weeks -- when you dial back on exercise, it takes your metabolism a while to make the adjustment. I have simply been HUNGRY the past two weeks. Normally, that’s not too big a deal: As long as I’m making my calories valuable and am not completely overeating, I’m good. But the past week and a half, I’ve been taking in all those calories and not burning them off, except for once at the gym and that one home workout. I definitely added a couple pounds -- the usual notch on the belt has been feeling a smidge tight of late.

Not sure if tomorrow is a gym day or another run. I’m going to try to get a long in on Saturday, though long probably means 8 or 9 miles, tops.

Total miles since starting the blog: 97.8. Next run puts me over the century mark!