My stomach is fluttering, my head is saying "Why?" and muscles are clenching in anticipation of the soreness to come.  As anxious as my body is acting you'd think I'm a pansy this was my first time running.  The truth is I've been on the DL for several weeks due to pain in my foot from a partially healed stress fracture. I haven't run in four weeks and I'm nervous.  Will I remember how it feels?  Will my body cooperate?  How bad is it going to be?  Then I remember things like this: Though I never really gave up on running, I felt like I had because I couldn't run, silly as that might sound. Yet, it's motivational pictures like this one that give me hope that my first run post-injury won't be all bad: It starts to click...Oh yeah, I remember that! It may have been a while but I still remember how good I feel after a good run (or sweaty spin class!) And though I feel like I'm starting over, I realize I'm not, really.  Yes...

I'm injured. Again. This pretty much sums up how I feel: Ask my family, especially the Gotta Run Husband, and they'll tell you I haven't been much fun to be around.  Crabby, moody, frustrated, and injured without knowledge of what it is or how to fix it are a recipe for disaster certain combination for arguments and a grumpy runner and family.  After nearly a week of worry, pain, and no a little running I finally gave in and went to the doctor today. I really thought I might have a stress fracture the way my foot was not responding to rest, ice, and ibuprofen.  An X-ray of my foot revealed an old stress fracture (that I had no idea was even there!) of the third metatarsal, but no new stress fractures!   I've never been so happy in all my life to hear the words "severe sprain." That was music to my ears, let me tell you! So, it's another injury that will keep me down for another few weeks (guess I'll get quite a bit of work done on my mast...

This is is my first official training cycle. For my first half marathon.  I've run races before, so how is this the first time I've trained?  Well, up until now I wasn't all that serious about my running nor was I tackling distances that required actual training. A view that's becoming entirely too common for my husband and my children. :( During this training cycle (this is week 8 of a 15 week plan) I've been injured twice (sprained ankle and a sprained LCL).  After two injuries it finally clicked - I need to adjust my thinking when it comes to training. Until recently I'd treated training the same as running for enjoyment, just doing it more frequently with a plan dictating distances to shoot for. Now I realize:   training is serious.  The more serious you take it and the more you put into it, the more you're going to benefit from it.  I'm dressed, my head is ready...now  if only my body would cooperate! All that being said, I...