I found a new running buddy

I am on vacation this week and Lucy is with us. John took Macy home with him so I get stuck with the one year old let me destroy everything that I know you love yellow lab. She is a very sweet girl most of the time but boy if you don't have her occupied she really does love to eat precious items. Like my new running shoes a few weeks ago.

Today is Lucy's one year old birthday and I thought what better way to start it off then to let her run with me. I wasn't really worried about running much today because after being thrown off the golf cart yesterday (by accident) my ankle was hurting so I really just was trying it out to make sure it was just tight and not really hurt. The majority of the swelling is in my arch so I thought it would be fine to walk on. So off Lucy and I are. She is not much of a leash walker so I had no grand hopes of her running far. Well my little girl has surprised the heck out of me and she actually ran the entire 2.5 miles with me. At first she couldn't decide which side she wanted to be on but after the first mile she chose my right side and just trotted right along. I am still in shock over how focused she was. Nothing bothered her. Passing cars, people and little dogs did not effect her at all. She just kept going. Lucy was totally ready for her water bowl when we got back and now is napping.

Then when I opened my email, there is an article from Runner's World on training your dog to run with you! Guess what I am going to be reading this afternoon? Lucy is officially my new training partner. I sure hope Rod and Jess don't mind her coming along in the mornings to run with us!

If anyone else runs with their dog and you have any words of wisdom, please share them with me. I want this to be a good experience for me and Lucy.

How it feels

To those of us who run regularly, you know what it is like to be sidelined and not able to do what you love and that is running for me. I will never be a winner of any age group, but I love to put one foot in front of the other and go. Therefore the last seven weeks have been very hard physically as well as emotionally.

I have missed my running friends, my early morning therapy sessions as I refer to them and several events that I would normally have signed up for. But mainly I have missed the feeling of getting the miles in and what it does for me mentally. Oh and being able to eat whatever I really wanted to was missed as well and my scale shows that more than anything.

With that said, yesterday I ran 2.5 miles. I don't care that it was 96 degrees when I started and stopped. I ran the whole thing. That doesn't included the almost half of mile I walked to warm up or the quarter of a mile I walked to cool down. I ran 2.5miles without stopping or feeling like I would die from anything other than heat! YAY!

It feels indescribable to me to be running again. I had no idea how much I truly missed it until yesterday. Now let the training begin...slowly that is!

Getting Back

I know I haven't posted anything in a long time. Haven't had anything to really post. I have an injury that I have been and am still nursing. I was finally given the thumbs up to start running again last week. Don't think that I have just been sitting around doing nothing for the past 7 weeks. I used this time to focus on swimming!

I will not bore you with how poor of a swimmer I am. If you read this blog you know that already. Well that has changed. I have turned into super swimmer and have the gold stars from my coach to prove it! Cherri Kennedy at the Hartley YMCA Masters Program has spent two days a week with me for the last 7 weeks. We both are excited when the class is over that I made and could complete the entire workout. Yesterday we even marveled that she hasn't had to adjust a workout for me in weeks! I don't mind showing up twice a week now. Before, any excuse to get me out of it worked just fine for me. Not that you care but I have also been doing spin class to keep the legs moving. As hard of a workout that I get from that class (2-3 times/week), it did nothing to keep the weight gain at bay!

So now that I can run, the plan he gave me has me starting out at 2.5 miles 4 times a week, then building on that. That seemed like way too much so I decided to run 1 mile and see how it went. Not so well the first time. My leg started hurting again and I got scared. So I took a few days off and my leg still hurt. Gun shy or just crazy I guess you could say. I emailed the PA and asked what he thought. I am sure he laughed the entire time he was typing the response. I was told to just run and follow the plan. Unless it hurt severely, then I was fine. The muscle group was not use to being used so it would hurt and that was expected. Yeah I am not buying that but I don't have DR. or PA in my title, so that is what I am doing, just running. I tried again this week and it went fine. So hopefully I really am back in the sport of running. This truly is the first time that I have ever followed Dr.'s orders so they better be right!

I do feel like a slug with the weight I have gained so I decided to let someone (I will not mention your name, but I am rethinking our friendship) talk me into trying a new class. Athletic Conditioning...Yes it sounded like something that I would be able to do when reading the class description with no problem. Well that was Monday, and John had to help me wash my hair this morning (Wed)! I can't lift my arms over my head. How sad is that? I wasn't going to do the class again but now I feel like I have too. I obviously am not very strong and need to work on some muscle conditioning. So after I come back from vacation, I am going to try it again (unnamed friend your going back with me)!

So here is to happy running times and getting back out there. The IPod is charged and I will hit the pavement or the track at the Y tonight!