I JUST RAN 6 MILES!!!!!

Without any pain or burning sensation. I have the biggest internal grin on (trying to hide my giddiness from my coworkers :))!!

Went to the PT afterwards for the 2nd steroid patch. Plan is to have a third sometime later this week. (Apparently 8-10 is the equivalent to a cortisone injection… yikes… glad my body has healed fast & reacted very well to the first one). We talked about a plan to get back up to running full mileage/intensity, and, as everyone knows, it’s just a guessing game (hopefully an educated guessing game!). How quickly can you ramp up? Is it better to just run once a day? How “long” of a long run will I be able to do this week? When can I add in intensity?

Obviously, we’re trying to be cautious here so we don’t land back where I was 10 days ago. Decision was to try 6 today and slowly ramp that up throughout the week, with the potential of a first double day on Friday or Saturday (if everything is going REALLY well). When we get closer to the end of the week we can also decide on speed… hard to know when to try to do a hard workout (and how much to abbreviate that workout).

I have to say that I am SO thankful that I have been very smart and patient with this injury. I sought medical advice right away, immediately rested the area, and did all of the little things I needed to work on: flexibility, strengthening the muscle groups that are weak, icing/ibuprofen for inflammation, etc. Most importantly, I didn’t allow myself to have any test runs – I honestly think that was key. I was so tempted, but knew that it was better to error on the side of complete rest and running a setting myself up to have a longer test run once things were more healed. I also watched what I ate even more, knowing that I wasn’t working out as much & knowing how easily I gain weight when I’m not running a lot. I’m really proud of myself, especially considering it was a holiday week!!

I also poured myself into cross training. There were two really great workouts I was able to muscle through on the elliptical: First was 1.5 hours, where I had 30 minutes where I increased my HR 5 bpm every 5 minutes (175, 180, 185, 190, 195, 200). I ended up holding my HR around 202 for the last 5 minutes. Then another 20 minutes with a similar progression (180, 185, 190, 195). Second elliptical workout on Saturday was very similar, 1.75 hours total, just a few bpms lower (could only get my HR up to 197 at the peak, no matter how much I tried to beat up the elliptical!). I tried SO hard to get it higher, but wasn’t able – perhaps because it was a different machine? Or are there days where you just can’t get it as high, no matter how hard you try? Guess I’ve never paid attention (or done similar workouts so close to each other so I could prepare).

Let’s hope that tomorrow’s run also brings no pain!!