Back to the Running

As I mentioned briefly in Wednesday's post, I'm BACK TO THE RUNNING.

Somehow, it seems appropriate that I'd be back running in 2015 and Back to the Future traveled into 2015.  Maybe it's a sign? I dunno!

Anyway, why is it such a big deal that I'm back to running?

Well, if you recall last July, I ran a 4th of July 5K.  And that was the beginning of the end in regards to me developing plantars fasciitis (which, of course, I only admitted I might have a month and a half later.) 

Since then, it's been a long and sad struggle for me in regards to keeping active period.  Everything I did always seemed to make my feet hurt, so much so that some days I'd get out of bed the next morning and could hardly walk.

Even this girl looks better than I did most mornings.



Which, of course, meant that I stopped being as active as I usually was.

Which also, of course, then took a toll on my confidence ... and my waistline.

So for the last few months, I've slowly let all my running conditioning rot away.  Which is so depressing to watch, especially knowing last year at this time I was almost marathon ready.  And, from late fall on, I limited myself to non-impact sports.  Which meant I also toned down what I would do in classes to avoid as much impact as possible, and then not long after - I lost all my mojo and kind of fell into the toilet.

Don't get me wrong, I still worked out.  But my love for it got lost somewhere.  Understandable, knowing that the pain that would follow would make it impossible for me to even walk, let alone workout again the next day.

Despite wearing a device to stretch my foot at night and buying a tiger tail to work out my feet and calves, the pain continued.

But then last month, something happened.  After days and months of waking up, some days in so much pain that I could barely walk to the shower, all of the sudden ... poof.  One day a few weeks ago I rolled out of bed, and before I could even make the connection, I had walked all the way to the shower - ABSOLUTELY PAIN FREE.

I cautiously hoped that would mean I had finally healed. 

Unfortunately, in the week that followed, I did still have some sensitivity.  But - it was much less than I had felt, pain wise, in a long time.

And then this month, Lazyman Ironman began.  Plus, I have Tri U Mah (my first indoor tri) to look forward to at the end of the month.  So I decided on Monday night to jump back into running head first with a brick workout that included a moderate hour long bike session and a 2 mile run.  I don't know what kind of magic juju it was, but I launched right into the run segment like I never even took a break this fall and winter. 

Ok, ok - yes, the pace was slower, and my endurance wasn't enough to do a long run but ... I cranked out 2 miles and felt pretty good.  Plus, with a little extra tiger tail work on my feet before bed, I woke up the next morning with almost no pain ... and I didn't even wear my overnight brace!

So this is it.  I'm getting back out there.  Let's see where it takes me...