Another reason that this week was wonderful is that I came home from Winston-Salem on Wednesday night for the rest of the work week! I typically travel for my job and am used to being away from home most weeks Monday - Friday. Being home meant getting to run in Charlotte with Jason and the dogs on a weekday, such an unexpected treat. Thursday morning the alarm clock went off at 6am and I rolled out of bed, so happy to be rolling out of my own bed and not a hotel's. I started getting ready and asked Jason if he was still up for coming. He slowly got himself up and ready as well, then we made our way downstairs to leash up the pups. Unfortunately, Roxie seems to be having allergy issues again and has been licking her paws quite a bit. It looks as though one of them is slightly cracked, so we decided she should rest and let that heal, which left Reese as the solo dog for this run. Reese can be hit or miss when running without Roxie. She loves the two on one attention from us, but she is very skittish when outside the house away from the security of having Roxie right by her side. In the past this has occasionally led to Reese pulling towards whatever direction she thinks is home with all of her might for the duration of the run, which is just not fun. Luck was on our side that day and Reese looked thrilled to be outside running with us. She led the way to the greenway with her tail up and her ears flopping happily with each step. The sun was still low in the sky and the heat had not yet rolled in for the day, it was perfect. While alone on the greenway as we trotted along towards the 1 mile mark I wondered if life could possible get much better than this. In Sunday school this week the topic was about moments of stillness being the time that we are able to take in the beauty of the world around us and feel the presence of God. Even though we were running, this was one of those moments.
The third reason this week was wonderful is that I received the all clear from my Dr. regarding my training. It has been three months since my stress fracture and I have followed the Dr's orders every step of the way hoping for this moment to arrive. He gave me final instructions to have fun running again, not to worry about slight soreness when not actively running, but that if it started to hurt during I run I needed to stop and rest again. I thanked him and walked out feeling as though a huge weight had been lifted, little did I know my joy would be short lived. Saturday morning the alarm clock went off and I jumped out of bed knowing today would be my first 5 mile attempt in months. Jason rode his bike next to me as we started towards the greenway, and we talked about today being an easy run to slowly work my mileage back up. I had done two 3 mile runs so far, 5 should not be too hard right? Wrong. At the 2.5 mile mark I had to stop for a walk break. My legs felt like lead, my lungs were burning, and I had a horrible side stitch. After 2 minutes of walking I started back up again, determined to run the complete distance. The next 2.3 miles went by with little trouble as my legs had finally woken up and the stitch in my side was less sharp. The final .2 miles were up the big hill next to our house, and I wanted to work it. I took off up the hill and within seconds was panting hard. Jason looked at me nervously every few seconds, I probably sounded as though I would collapse any moment I was wheezing so loudly. I did not care though, I was free and I was pushing hard to finish the hill. For a split second almost at the top I felt a sharp pain shoot down my leg where the stress fracture had been, then it went away as quickly as it had come. 10 seconds later I was at the top of the hill, walking slowly to cool down. I had finished the 5 mile run successfully but I was a bit scared. What was that pain, and would it have come back had I kept running? The Dr. told me I was clear to run just 24 hours before, what was happening? The rest of the day it did not hurt much, but there was this dull ache every once in a while that kept me nervous and cautious.
I have decided to take at least one week off of running to monitor the pain and then decide what to do. I want 5 pain free days in a row before I consider running again, and until then I am excited to try out the non impact P90X workouts. Also I can take advantage of our stationary bike to work a bit more on my lungs as that seems to be my biggest weakness at the moment. As far as long term planning goes, I have made a few other decisions due to the additional time off I am planning for this week and potentially next. The Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, PA looks like it will be too much of a stretch this year. My goal for this entire year in the marathon has been to break 3 hours, which has proven to be an elusive barrier so far. Given that Steamtown is now 16 weeks away, I have no base mileage, and I am going to take 7-14 additional days off, it just does not make sense to keep this race on my schedule. The Richmond Marathon is scheduled for the 2nd weekend of November and I am leaning towards this as my fall marathon. I am not sure if my goal for the year will remain to break 3 hours, it would be silly to commit to that when I cannot even run 5 miles at the moment without pain. So, for now, my goal is this: To successfully train for and complete the Richmond Marathon. Time goals will be determined later, I am happy with this for now.
For the next month I'll be chasing down the time I lost from this unplanned step back. That is ok though, things in life worth attaining are always worth waiting for.
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