Two More

I've been trying to be a good girl in this "return to running" thing I'm currently doing. After all, it's only been a few days :-)

I had an appointment with Dr. Jamie on Monday. He was happy to hear that I was having no foot pain, and worked with me on some of the pain/tenderness I was describing in my shin and up along my IT band to the hip. In fact, it appears that the pain was stemming from my glute muscles not playing nicely. The gluteus maximus that I've been working on strengthening is better, but a very tight gluteus minimus was what was causing the pain that I thought was my IT band. Who knew? Some deep ART stuff later and a few cracks and crunches to straighten out a slight imbalance in my pelvis, and I was feeling amazingly better!

Yesterday, I was still feeling good, and wanted to run but figured I would hold back. So, I worked on my core/glute strengthening exercises and stretched. And then today, I headed over to the Commons for another short run. I could have run from home. I mean, I drove for as long as I ran. But, I felt the need to get on the trails.It was great to be in the woods! The trails were soft beneath my feet. There were pink ladyslippers, bunchberry, false lily of the valley and goldthead blooming, and while the rhodora had passed, the pink swamp laurel was starting to come out amidst all the greenery. I took the twisty, narrow singletrack that was just on the verge of getting overgrown as it does in the summer months, and meandered, slowly, through the quiet forest. I was out for 20:10, stopping once the garmin beeped exactly 2.0 miles and walking the final few yards back to the car. The foot held up fine. No pain. Hurray!

Ryan asked how the run went, and if I was happy, when I got back home. I told him I was, but that it was tempered. I was happy to be running. I realize how much my happiness depends on being able to be active, to be out in the woods, to enjoy the silence, to work things through as I run along. But while I wanted to run comfortably and freely this morning, at the same time I felt that I had to be conscious with every step. Was there pain? How was my foot striking the ground? Was that a twinge? It was not an entirely carefree 20 minutes. I felt nervous. I do not want the pain to return. On the other hand, I am impatient, anxious. I want to be able to run, really run. But for now, I am trying to be "smart" and "safe" and be patient, patient, patient.

And so with that, another day off tomorrow and another short run on Friday. Slowly but surely, I'll get there...