I’m back!

For the past couple weeks, I have thought about my return to running about every 10 seconds, every day, all day long.  Maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but I did actually kind of surprise myself with how anxious I was to get back out there.  I got the go ahead to start exercising again at my 6 week check up on Friday and I had planned to have my glorious first post-baby #2 run on Saturday so I could run outside alone without pushing a stroller.

When I found myself home alone with 2 sleeping kids on Friday afternoon, I could not resist my only option to run – the treadmill.  I’m not the biggest fan of the treadmill, but it gets the job done and I love that I have it as an option, especially with 2 young kids.  This is one time where I could not have been more happy to be on the treadmill.  I ran 3.1 miles with a few walking breaks sprinkled in.  I’m really trying to focus on taking it easy during my return to running so I don’t injury myself again.  I have a feeling there will be many more treadmill runs in my future as I try to figure out how to fit running into life with 2 little ones.

One sleeping kid on the monitor and one sleeping kid hanging out next to mommy

It was amazing how sore my body was from those 3 little miles.  I decided to skip running on Saturday since I was so sore and since, like I said, I don’t want another injury.

Sunday morning, I was thrilled to be able to go for a run outside.  It snowed the night before so there was about an inch of snow on the sidewalk.  I’ve never run in the snow before so it wasn’t ideal to have snow on the ground for my first run outside, but I managed not to fall. The snow was actually good for me because it made me take it really slow (not that I’m not already really slow anyway!).  It’s funny that last winter, I was so excited for the chance to run in the snow while I was training for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and I never got to because we had such a mild winter.  Here I am totally out of running shape and I finally got my chance for a snowy run.

Looks like there were some other runners here before me

Those 3 miles outside were AMAZING.  It felt so good to start my day with a run and have that little bit of time to myself.  I felt good enough to run the whole thing without stopping, but I took 2 short walking breaks to be on the safe side.

My pesky ankle felt okay for the most part.  There were a few times I felt the tiniest bit of soreness there, but nothing like I felt in the past.  I don’t know if it was really soreness or just a little bit of tightness.  I even had to wonder if it was all in my head because I’m so paranoid that the problem is going to creep back up on me again.  I’m going to keep playing it safe and stick with short runs every other day until I’m back in better running shape, then I’ll work on cranking things up a bit.

New shoes!

Those are Altra Zero Drop shoes on my feet (one of the prizes in the Winter 100 Challenge!).  I’m trying something new in hopes of keeping myself injury-free.  I know some people would probably think minimalist shoes are just a recipe for more injuries because that’s what I once thought.  I’ve dealt with so many injuries in traditional running shoes that I figure, what do I have to lose? I’ll save the rest of my journey into minimalist running for another day because there’s a lot to say there.

That’s 6.2 miles in the bank toward my Winter 100 Challenge total! I have somewhere around 20 miles of walking from December.  I don’t know if I’ll make it to 100 with how ever many miles I’ll bank in February, but I think I have a pretty good excuse having a new baby and all .

Happy running!