It Wasn't Pretty, But I Did It...

I said I was going to go for a run this morning, and I kept my word. It was only a mile, but this is the first mile that I've run since October so that has to count for something.

Let me back up a bit, and then I'll get to the run....

If you read yesterday's post, you know that I have been following my friend's progress as he trains for a 10k. We chatted a bit yesterday and he got me motivated to get back into it. I told him I was going to start by going for a short run in the morning. I was pretty excited about it. This was all during my normal work day. Unfortunately, Wednesdays are my day from hell for the week and I don't get to go home and relax at 5 pm. I had to go to class until close to 10 pm that night. (More on this in another post.) As the night slowly passed, I started thinking more about how tired I was going to be in the morning and how I was not going to want to get up and run. But every time that thought came into my head, I told myself to stop whining and deal with it.

So I get home from school right at 10:00 and my amazing boyfriend had dinner waiting for me. I know, eating at 10 pm is not ideal, but when you work from 8:00 to 5:00 and then go to class from 5:30 to 9:40, you don't have much of a choice. So we had dinner (baked cod, roasted squash and zucchini, and cous cous), watched some TV and talked about our day. I think we made it to bed a little after 11:00 and I crashed.

When my alarm went off this morning, I got up surprisingly easy. I tip toed out of the bedroom so I wouldn't wake Mike and got dressed in my running gear that I had remembered to set out before bed. I leashed up the mutt (this really is a term of endearment in my house--we absolutely LOVE this creature.) and headed out into the cold. We did our normal walk around the block to get his business out of the way and then I started the Garmin and away we went. I think Roman was a little shocked when we didn't make the turn back to home, but he quickly got over it and fell in stride beside me. He really is a great running buddy...as long as there isn't a soul around to distract him.

We finished our slow mile in right at 11 minutes (Ugh...I have a lot of work to do to get back in to the groove) and then walked the last couple blocks back home. I'm glad I misjudged the route a little because I needed those blocks to convince my lungs to stop screaming from the shock of the cold air. I probably could have gone further than a mile, but it's been so long that I didn't want to push it too much. I vividly remember the pain I felt while pushing through the Army Ten Miler and I don't want to deal with that again.

I'm not going to run tomorrow. For one, I want to access the situation and make sure my back is healed like I think it is. And the other reason is that Friday is the one day of the week that I don't have morning mutt duties. So I'm going to take advantage and sleep until 6:00. I do have Saturday off from my part time job, so I'm already planning on another run then. I might even push it up to a mile and a half!

Starting Over

It has been a long time since I last blogged...November to be exact. Ugh.

If you recall, I was injured after completing the Army 10 Miler back in October.  I had high hopes that it would be a quick recovery, but that was not the case. I ended up giving up on all running, and pretty much any other form of exercise as well. It was all just too painful. I started in with the chiropractor. I was saved by one many years ago when I was dealing with intense back pain, so I thought it would be a good idea to try it again. After many months, I am happy to say I'm back to being pain free. I still go to the chiropractor, but I'm now down to once every other week.

Now that I'm pain free, I really have no excuse for my complete lack of physical activity. Actually, I take that back....I have a ton of excuses....I work full time, I'm going back to school so all of my free time is spent reading and/or studying, I have a part time job, and I desperately want to have at a least a pathetic excuse for a social life. But this just isn't good enough, I need to figure out a way to make room for one more aspect of a healthy, well-rounded life. I need to get back in the gym and back out on the roads.

I have been motivated by reading the new blog from my friend, Art. He is currently going through a training program for the Monument Avenue 10k. He has some struggles, but he is seeing some amazing improvement and it is inspiring.

So here it is....I am going to go for a run in the morning. I've put it out there, so now I have to do it! Mind you, it has been a long, long time. I'll be lucky to get through a mile, but I have to start somewhere. And I know that I have a running buddy hanging out at home right now that will ecstatic to join me....the pup won't know what to do with himself when he realizes that our normally short morning walk around the block will turn into a 10 minute run around the neighborhood.

Get ready world...I'm back!