This is my first post in a while. Since my injury in August 2009, I have had a tough stretch of injuries sprinkled with a few good runs. This month I have began to start running again, since it's been 5 months since my ankle surgery and my battle with RSD. I started off this month with a run-walk program, and eventually worked my way up slowly to where I am now. I have been doing a combination of running and elliptical to keep myself in decent shape. Last week I ran four straight six mile runs which felt surprisingly good, and then took off three days from everything. Although I'm quite a bit bigger than what I was when I was running before the surgery, it didn't feel that hard to maintain a relaxed 6:55-7:00 min pace. Today I went for my first run in VA Beach. I was able to find a park called "first landing" that had a dirt packed trail with rolling hills. I was able to rattle off the first 3 miles out, averaging in the high 6:30's. I wasn't planning on doing anything faster than 7:15, but my garmin was a little off since it was in the woods, and I didn't notice the mile markers until half-way through the third mile. The way back I decided to try maintaining the same pace, and was able to run in the mid 6:20's for those three. I am going to have to make sure that I don't over-do it the next month or two until I am running 100%. The last thing I wan't to do is repeat these miserable past three years, especially with all the stress I'm going to be under this year. The best part of running now is that I am able to do it sans-orthotics. While they did help me over the past few years, they were terribly uncomfortable and made running not as enjoyable as it used to be. |