Orphalin Annie

Last week marked my first consistent week of running after a six week hiatus.  I only did 9 miles total but it felt good to be back.  For the last several years, including my pregnancy and post-partum the most I had taken off from running was one week.  I think this would have been fine if I had also been consistent with strengthening and cross-training.  Unfortunately, I was not and my weaknesses finally began to take their toll.  I had a good 4th of July race and followed that with a nice 9 mile run later that week.  I had some pain but felt that it was normal given the intensity of the workouts.  Then the pain didn’t go away and kept me awake.  At the advice of one of my attendings I decided it was time to rest.  I got involved in PT, bought a pilates reformer machine, got on the bike (a later post), and got in the pool.  The break was not torture and in fact with the awful heat we had during that time, I wasn’t too upset about it.  I ran 3 miles three times last week and the pain was minimal to none.  Elation.  I do huff and puff a lot though which I hate.  I am reminding myself that I will get back to where I was and hopefully even surpass it.