I had no horse!

That's how I felt on my planned 6 miles yesterday. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but after the 1st mile warm up and 2 at tempo, I was dying. Dead legs, felt like I was running in waist deep water. Decided to go out and back for a 4th mile and call it, but ended up doing a shorter loop that put me closer to 5 miles. It was 90 and high humidity, so some conditioning and better hydration are in order I think

Up Yonder on the Chattahoochie

I got my long run in after work - 7 miles. I ran on the 3 mile loop at the Chattahoochie off New Northside. It's pretty well shaded, pretty well flat, soft trails, and, most importantly, has water fountains along the way. It also has distance markers every quarter mile.

Math and I haven't gotten along so well since 8th grade when Mr. Coffee "lost" several of my tests and I almost failed and would go off on screaming jags and throw books at the class and stuff. But I digress. I have to be very literal about keeping up with miles and it usually takes way more thought than it should to figure out how to track 7 miles on a 3 mile loop.

On this trail, I go from the start marker around to the 3 mile marker - which is NOT at the same place as the start marker. So I turn around there and run the trail backwards. I planned, once I arrived back at start, to turn around and go back out for 1/2 mile and back. But it was a tough run, and I knew that there was no way that I would go back out for that last mile if my car was in sight at mile 6. So hang in there with me: I'm running "backwards" according to the mile markers. At the mile 1 marker (which was the end of mile 5 of the run), I turned around, ran back to the 1.5 mile marker, then turned back around to finish. See, I really had to think all of this through in just as much detail as I'm writing it to be sure I was figuring the miles correctly.

The deal with myself was that once I got to the 1 mile marker again (mile 6 in my run), I'd just try to keep running as far as I could back to the car/start marker. If I had to quit, it was okay. But I didn't quit!

no long run

I was supposed to do 7 miles as my long run today, but my knee is hurting. Hopefully I can get it in after work tomorrow. It may be time to have a follow up PT visit to see if I'm not recovering as I should or if my head is just messed up.

Vacation

I got some great runs in while at the beach for a long weekend. Running on the beach was out. It was too unstable for my knee. But I did get a 4+ miler in on Sat., and a 6+ miler on Mon. I also had a beach romance with a bike - a little pedal thing with no gears and cute little basket.

I just checked out my routes on Map My Run, and it turns out I rode nearly 12 miles on Sunday evening, then another 12 miles right after my 6 mile run on Monday morning (can you say dead legs), and a final 7 to pick up chocolate croissants for breakfast on Tuesday. This was in my final quest to find something useful to tote in my basket.

It was hard to walk away from that cute little bike, but it was just a vacation romance.

Questions

Feeling some pain and swelling after the 5 miles Sun., so I didn't run my easy 2 yesterday. I'm going to do them today no matter what, but I wonder if it's part of the process or if it's a problem.

This recovery process is as much mental as anything. I find myself analyzing every twinge and wondering is this "recovery pain" or "injury pain", swelling from just getting back into it or swelling because something's wrong. My thinking needs to get in shape as much as my body does.

The Mile that Counts

Every time I add a mile, it's the first time I've run X miles since November. Yesterday it was 5 miles. I did it on the 5K trail by the Chattahoochie, since it's soft. Kept a 10 min avg pace - high 10:05, low 9:53 - and it was the last mile.

As I turned the loop for mile 5, the mile I haven't done since November, I was telling myself "this is the mile that counts, the one that's going to get you back." Yeah I know - when you aren't listening to music you talk to yourself a lot - or I do anyway.

The run felt great, the knee feels ok - it's still a little swollen today.

Training Again

I've been gone a while haven't I? I'm finally back to a training schedule and my weekly mileage has crossed into double digits. Last Saturday, I did my 2nd 5K of the spring. My time was really slow because of the crowd and because I chose to run and visit with a volunteer running for our organization. It was more about the cause (Susan G. Komen for the Cure) than time anyway.

Here's proof I did it - and proof I've gotten plenty flabby in the past several months.

Oh and that's not my volunteer - this was the last 1/2 mile when she stopped to walk and I tried to pick up the pace.

the first mile

Yesterday I did my first jog post-op. I had tried one run on the treadmill before my surgery. In fact, it was the cramping and pain after half a mile that led to me deciding to have the surgery after all.

Yesterday's run was much better. Did a mile on the elliptical and stretched to warm up. Then hopped on the treadmill. Definitely this will take humility. I started very slowly and worked up the speed, but ended up with a blazing 13:20 mile. The good news was that I could have kept going. My new life is going to involve ice and ibuprofen (multiples of both) after my runs, at least for now. But that can't put a damper on the great feeling of finally moving forward.

I'm looking forward to sending my great doc and physical therapist some pictures of me finishing a race.

The Road Back

Today's my last physical therapy appointment for a while. Got released from the dr. yesterday after my 2nd post-op visit. Only a torn meniscus resulted in 3 1/2 months of no running.

The PT goal today is to jog on the treadmill and get me started back to running. I celebrated by signing up for the Peachtree Road Race (thanks to the generosity of a race sponsor and a friend!). I'll hopefully run or run/walk a couple of 5K's this spring too.

Now we'll see just how lazy I've gotten. I feel jealous and sad when I see runners out on Sat. a.m. doing their long runs. That should be me. But the feeling I want is me when I was in shape to run. Will I be humble enough to start from scratch again? To wonder if I can finish that 3 miles, 5 miles, heck even 1.5 miles?

Today is the first step on the road!