Testing the Waters

All weekend, I waffled back and forth on whether to do it.   To run, that is.   I spent all day Saturday swimsuit shopping and just the amount of walking left me with incredibly sore legs.  I started to question whether a run would be smart and whether I should just start walking a bit more before I try a run.

And then today hit and I was just too darn antsy to NOT run.  I wanted to know.  I wanted to finally see the progress.  And it had been 6 weeks without running.   SIX. Whole. Weeks.  So I made a deal with myself.  Walk 5 minutes to warm up.  Run slowly for 5 mins (walk if I need to) and then walk 5 minutes to cool down.   Fifteen easy minutes and I was free to stop if it hurt AT ALL.  I will not jeopardize more of my year being stupid.

First time these Kinvara's have been on my feet in a while!

I chose to treadmill it since it was raining/snowing and I didn't want to risk slipping (and didn't really want to get soaked to set myself up for being sick on vacation later this month).   I started out with an easy 10 min/km walk.   It was hard to walk the full 5 mins.  It really was.  I wanted to just run already.  But the 5 was soon over and I could bump up the pace.  Not much.  Just to 8 min/km.

It took a minute to find my rhythm but I felt good.  NO PAIN!  I could definitely FEEL where the fracture had been but NO PAIN!  I was RUNNING!

Such a  bad angle.

The five minutes of running was over far too fast, but I had promised myself that I would take it easy and, as anyone who's been reading this blog for any amount of time knows - I have a hard time taking it easy.   Time to cool down.  and then it was over...

Well - it didn't break any land speed records but it was certainly MUCH faster than my ass has been moving for the past month and a half.   

All in all a success.

So - what now?  I have not actually been cleared to resume running yet.  I tried to get in with my doctor for this past week but the earliest appointment I could get was May 14th.  Le sigh.   So I am making plans.  I am not starting to actually run again.  Not yet.  I am going to keep resting.  I don't know if feeling where the fracture was is a sign that it isn't 100% healed yet or what.  I do not want to take any chances.  BUT I think I am going to start to walk again and get my legs used to taking on mileage again.

When I am finally cleared to run - I am happy to say that I don't think I will need to start from scratch again.  I have managed to keep my cardio up by biking so this wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.   I will just need to listen to my body and keep my distances low for a bit.

Today's run also gave me a chance to assess whether I think I can take on the Mother's Day 5k next weekend.  I think I can.  That race is so important to me - I really don't want to miss it.  But I will be walking it.  Maybe with a few slow short runs thrown in to up the fun factor for my girlies.  My mind may change on that as the week progresses.   For all I know, this run could leave me really hurting tomorrow.  If I am feeling AT ALL off come next weekend - I will just be spectating the race or cutting the distance short.  

But yeah - I RAN!   Can I get a standing ovation?