Running

Earlier today I logged onto blogger thinking that I should write a post.  After staring at the screen for a few moments with my hands poised above the keyboard, I realized I literally had nothing to say.  In fact, I almost wrote "I have nothing today."  And it's still (mostly) true.

However, I did read something that gave me (a little) inspiration.  Katie's blog, which I have followed faithfully for 3 years, and is probably one of my top 3 favorites.  She wrote this post yesterday, and I understand what she means.  She has been running longer than I have, and she just recently had a stress fracture in her ankle that has stopped her from running for the last 5 weeks.

Getting back into running after stopping in October and November has been much slower than I anticipated.  Granted, I am keeping it light on purpose because the last time I increased my mileage by a few miles my feet bothered me again.  And I find it much, much easier to put off a run.

For example, I was going to run yesterday.  I am going out of town this weekend and in order to avoid running 2 days in a row, I decided I needed to run Wednesday and Friday, and then most likely take the weekend off, because, let's face it, I never run when I go on vacation, even if I plan to.  However, even though I was home earlier than normal yesterday I decided to not run and just do it today.  Which means that I will need to run tomorrow as well to get as many miles as I'd like to have, which is 2 days in a row, which is what I was trying to avoid.

I don't plan my runs for the week, well, I do, but they are loosely planned and at least once a week I switch them around.  (Just like on Sunday, I didn't run on Sunday, which meant I had to run on Monday, which is why I was going to run yesterday, so I could run on Friday . . .) Do you see how changing just one day is a downhill spiral for me?

I have been sitting here all day thinking that maybe I wouldn't run today anyway and just save it for tomorrow and then PROMISE myself I'd run on Sunday.  But no, that PROMISE is never kept for me.  Vacations are fun and I tend to just let it slide.

I have started worrying that I will never get back to the dedication that I was just 6 months ago.  100 miles in a month?  Yeah right!  Maybe a marathon ISN'T a goal.  I can't believe I ever ran 5 miles 4 days a week with a long run of 7+ miles on the weekend.  I'll never get back to that.  Do I want to get back to that?  Those are the thoughts that run through my head lately, and I'm unhappy with them.  I LOVE running.  I LOVE that feeling of a new distance.  10 miles?  Fantastic!  13.1 miles?  Incredible!!
So how do I go back to that?  I don't know.  I'm sick of my feet hurting.  Other than completely stopping again (which I never want to do) I don't know how to make it heal any faster.  Yes, they are soooo much better than they were.  Today I haven't had one bit of pain.  But yesterday I did.  I do my exercises way more frequently than I ever have.  I am working on strengthening (and stretching) my hips.  But it just seems to drag on.

Some day I will look back at this and think, wow!  I forgot how much my feet hurt.  But that hasn't happened yet.

I double dog PROMISE that I WILL run a marathon someday.  (I hope it's this year, but if not, it will be next year or the year after.)

Double dog dare promise!