Three months.

At the 3 month mark of my injury, I'm feeling really hopeful.

My recovery is going very, very, sloooooowly. But, anything worth doing takes time, right? And recovering well is totally worth doing. So, if it takes a long time I have to be OK with that.

I'm running again. The most I've run so far is 2 miles, a couple of times. But, 2 miles is SO FAR from nothing!!! It is a pretty big deal.

I'm also still using the ellipitical and bike and I'm doing the tv workouts.

The only thing that has a tendency to discourage me is the snow and cold. At first, I kept telling myself that if I was going to be injured, a cold and snowy winter was the time to be injured. I mean, what would I be missing? Running in the freezing cold? Slipping on the ice? Who needs that?

But, now --- now, I'm recovering. I'm ready to start running outside but I can't. I can't risk slipping -- or tearing a too-cold and stiff muscle -- and setting myself back 3 months. I just won't do it.

And that rots. Because, right now, if I could run outside, I'd be farther along in my recovery. Running on the treadmill uses the same motion over and over -- especially because I can't use the incline at this stage of my recovery. So, I get to a point where I have to stop. Yes, I'm taking walk breaks and that helps. But if I was running outside . . . oh, well. I'm not. No sense making myself crazy with thoughts of what could be!

Spring and the promise of wonderful outdoor runs will be here soon! Until then, I'm content to just be able to run again :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress!

Slowly but surely I am starting to run. My longest unbroken run has been a mile but I've only done that once since starting back. Mostly, I've been running a half mile, walking for a quarter mile and running another half mile. It is what I can do right now. I'm glad to be doing it.

Would I love to be logging more miles? Would I love to have the confidence in my body to start considering a fall marathon or half-marathon like most of my running friends are doing?

Yes and yes.

But am I sad? Am I discouraged?

Honestly? Maybe a little. But probably less than you might expect. I mean, it rots, this whole not-able-to-really-run thing. But I'm doing other things. I'm riding the bike and using the elliptical at the gym. I'm exercising along with the "master trainers" on the Radius programs. I'm lifting some weights at home and at the gym.

None of it is the same as running, for sure. And I do miss running more than a half mile at a time.

This I know: I'll be back to more significant distance soon. In the meantime, I'll just be hanging around, working on my endurance!

Have a great week, everyone!

Half and half.

Well, friends, it happened.

I ran.

Yup, I ran.

In fact, I've run twice. Twice!

This is a big deal here in Happy Runner-ville. I mean, before these two runs, my last run was Thanksgiving day. (A.K.A. Horrible Hamstring Injury day.) That was waaaaay back in November.

But on January 30th, I ran again. I was walking along on the treadmill and I decided to just go for it. Try it out. See if I could run. Even a little.

And I did! I ran a half mile. A HALF MILE!!!!

It was awesome. Yeah, it was slow as anything and my hamstring was barking for the last half of that half mile, but I RAN!

Best part? Afterward I felt no worse than I felt before.

So, I went for it again and ran on Sunday. This time, I really pushed the envelope and ran a little more than a half mile. I think I made it all the way to .6 of a mile. Again, I felt it in my hamstring for the last half of the run but I didn't feel any worse afterward.

Good signs.

If I can keep this up, I'll be running a mile in no time :-)

To me, this is a super-duper development in my recovery plan. I've been soooooooooooo patient and I just hope that all of my patience and rehab exercises work so I can come back this spring and start to actually log some decent miles. I believe I will.

Even if I have to do it half mile at a time!

Have a great week, everyone!