A Slow Recovery

Dr. Sue Aery told me to try running today, so I did.  After several weeks of merely walking, it was a strange feeling to once again park in the accustomed place opposite Founders Park and don real running gear - my CWX tights (more for stability and support than for cold on this beautiful morning in the upper 40s), my headband and gloves, and my newest pair of running shoes.  I walked the first mile, and then when I came to that one-mile stretch along our route which I have marked off in 200-meter increments, I gingerly raised myself up on the balls of my feet, and in an odd old-man-shuffling kind of way I actually ran 200-meters, and without any major discomfort.  Wisely, I stopped to walk the next 200, and then I tried it again, completing a total of four 200-meter "intervals" in all, at perhaps the slowest pace I have ever done.  But I was elated!  I finished up with a mile cool-down walk, and although I felt a few unusual twinges during that last mile, I arrived back at my car a happy runner.  If 0.50 miles entered in my running log entitles me to that status.

Thank God for this amazing body that can heal after injury, that can recover and become strong again after stress!  And what a gift it is to be fit and healthy, a gift that we runners often take for granted.  The biggest temptation now will be to increase mileage and speed too rapidly, but I do not want to undo all the good that the apparently successful combination of rest, massage, ultrasound, and acupuncture has accomplished.  I have definitely lost fitness and strength, and I feel this afternoon as if I have run 15 or 20 miles.  So I will rest and stay off my feet as much as possible, and let the slow recovery continue.