Glimmers

Yesterday marked 3 months since my last run. My last, victorious, glorious, record-breaking, incredible 28-mile run. (Seriously: if you haven't read that post and you are up on my ACL/MCL disaster, you just have to. I re-read for the first time since about 2/14 and cried a little. That lady was so HOPEFUL! I will be her again someday!) Three months. More than 90 days. One-quarter of a year. THREEEEE MONTHS!

I was discussing that fact with my physical therapist as I peddled on the stationary bike and he asked the obvious question I hadn't even thought of before that: "When's the last time you have gone that long without running?" I honestly didn't have an answer for him at first, because although I knew "forever" was not completely honest, that's what it feels like.

My second thought was that since I started running at the age of 12, there have been very few stretches of great length where I haven't run. Then I remembered that outside of track season in junior high and high school, I really didn't run. After senior year, though, I DID run on purpose, even during college volleyball season. So maybe the answer was 1992.

Then I remembered that when I tore my ACL in 1994 I certainly stopped running for a good chunk of time. That might have been it.

And then the surgery site got infected in 2001 and I certainly got laid up then....

Of course, there was also three pregnancies and recoveries in there, so you can't forget those in 2004, 2006 and 2012.....

So, REALLY really, it's only been 2 years since I took a long break from running. I guess I have a lot more practice getting back into running than I thought I did.

This time hurts the most though, of course.

BUT... I am getting there. Slowly but surely, I am having a lot less achy moments and I am ALMOST sleep through the night without painful tossing and turning to find a comfortable position.

I have been  a walking fool, even going so far as to walk with hand weights to up the ante on the cardio a bit. I can't say that it makes me work up a good sweat or gives me the heart rate increase I so desperately crave... but it's something. And lately I've been getting to the 3 mile mark, which feels like something to celebrate.

At the appointment yesterday the PT showed me one legged squats to 60-degrees. He said "When you can do 10 of these without losing your balance, I'll know you are ready to run." I  knocked off 20 of them. I don't think this gives me permission to run but it certainly gave me permission to grin like an idiot. Ironically, I tried it on my 'good' leg and although it was much less fatiguing, it was also way wobblier. Guess I better get cracking on the left side or I'll do something stupid like get ANOTHER injury while I'm finishing up this one.

Gotta work on extension. At PT he has a nice 10 pound 'bag' weight to get my leg to hyper-extend/stretch.... This is what passes for weights at my house. A clever FB friend noted that I was "carb-loading".

Okay. I know this is not an award-winning blog entry, but I am trying to get back in the habit. So, here it is.

Happy Mother's Day... Especially if you happen to be MY Mama!