I just got my first jog in, outdoors of course, for the spring season. It’s April, and here in Ohio, it seems we are all going a little stir crazy since we’ve been cooped up for another long winter. And of course, we got all of our worst snow for the winter season at the end of the winter, so we are all ready to break out the bikes, boats, skateboards, rollerblades, and other outdoor fitness equipment and accessories, and get outdoors where the air is fresh and we can hear the birds singing again.

Well, just a few days ago, I seized the opportunity for my first spring jog because it was gorgeous outside. It was sunny, almost tipping seventy degrees but not quite, and the birds were out in full force. It’s amazing the difference when the sun comes out around here. You feel a certain buzz and chatter in the air, as if everyone was in hibernation for a year and now they’ve all come out to bask in the sun and inhale the fresh air deeply and appreciatively.

I was no different! I put on my sunscreen and sunglass, pulled on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, and got my jogging shoes on. I headed down a road that I’d never been down before since we just moved here a short time ago, to investigate what it looked like on foot. It’s amazing how different things look when you’re not whizzing by them in a car, isn’t it? The level of detail you notice, even just if you’re fast walking or jogging, and not leisurely strolling, is amazing.

Since I haven’t been for a jog on uneven terrain (aka, not a treadmill), for a while, I decided to take it slow and started off at a very slow pace, alternating jogging with fast walking, swinging my arms as well so I could get upper and lower body in, as is usual with my jogs and jog/walks. I’m always amazed at how quickly you lose the ability to jog, because I got winded very quickly and had to turn to walking quickly. I’m also always amazed every season at how quickly my endurance builds up again. I guess I attribute that to muscle memory, it’s really true what they say about that I believe.

However, I did get very sore unfortunately, and had to jump in the infrared sauna we purchased pretty quickly after since my legs had a lot of lactic acid built up in them. It quickly soothed away my aches, but I do have about one more day of recovery still since my quads are really hurting. I only went jogging for about a half hour, but my muscles haven’t been exposed to that particular type of resistence for a while, so they may take a little while to recover. I’ll just do yoga for a little while until they get better.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Random Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.