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?
