Skip to main content

First Day Jitters

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 going to have to rebuild some of my endurance but I'm always surprised how quickly my body reminds me it remembers that 


I am a runner. It's what I love to do and it's an integral part of who I am.  Weeks off due to injury has given me a new appreciation for running - even the bad runs.  

All that being said, I can't wait to get back out there. 

Gotta run....soon! :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Training Better (and smarter!)

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...

Chicago Polar Dash - Race Recap

Well, after an unplanned break from blogging ( ah, the joys of graduate school and the holidays! ), I can officially say - I am BACK! 2014 is a new year and I've got big plans, big aspirations, and big events coming this year. But, more on that later… For now I attempt my first race recap - forgive me if it sucks. After the difficulty to complete last year's challenge of 13 in 2013 and the major events coming in 2014 ( HELLO graduation!!!!) ,  I knew a lot of races wasn't an option this year. Enter the year of BIG races. I'm still going to do a handful of races, but they'll be larger distances or big, fun events to travel to. Either way, each race will be carefully selected. :) The Chicago Polar Dash was my first race of 2014. Why did I choose this race? A couple of reasons really: 1) My friend Jess from  Run With Jess  was doing it and I've always wanted to do a race with her, 2) it had GREAT swag, and 3) it was a 14 mile race which would set a new distan...

Emotional Toll

I've never been good at letting go of incidents that upset me.  This picture I found from  Runner Girl X  sums up pretty well what I needed to do but had a hard time doing. In the back of my mind I've always known how much my emotions affect the rest of me and how I function.  Yesterday's run brought that lesson to the forefront again. Earlier in the day I'd had a run-in that deeply upset me and left me very emotional the rest of the afternoon.  Tearful conversations with my husband and neighbors left me feeling a little better, but really, the last thing I wanted to do was my 7-mile training run. I dutifully dressed and laced up to head out anyway, knowing if I skipped the run I'd just feel worse than I already did because of guilt.  Heading out to one of my favorite trails, I should have been in a great mood and ready to put some mileage on my favorite pair of Newtons.  Instead I was still fighting back tears and wanting to go home and curl...