Coming back from a running injury

It's hard coming back from an injury. I was only out for 10 days and I can't believe how much I lost.

The last five runs have been difficult. I knew coming back that I would start out slow. However I didn't think it would be that bad. It was only 10 days.

I did 5 miles on Sunday. I kept it under 50 mins, but my lungs were burning and I was exhausted. Tuesday I did I 5k in just over 30 mins and I pushed so hard I thought I was going to puke. Not only did I run a 5k on Tuesday, I went back to the treadmill to do two quick miles. I had to do those one at a time cause I was winded.

I really thought it was my allergies that were the problem with me being out of breath. The last two days I've been taking Mucinex, and it didn't help. Bringing us to todays run...

Last month at this time I was able to put the treadmill on 6.3 and run forever. I didn't get winded, I didn't get tired. It felt great! Today however... nope! I started out at 6.3 and I was going to do 3:1 run/walk ratio. I had my gym boss timer on, turned on Netflix and I was ready to bust out 5 miles.

2.66 miles in I was done. I wanted to stop so bad, but I kept thinking I 'm half way there just do it. I changed the speed to 6.1 with the same 3:1 ratio. I did that for one "cycle", and it wasn't bad. The next two "cycles" I changed the speed to 6.2. I lost track of what I did as far as cycles and speed after that.

After I hit the four mile mark I remembered that I was going to add an extra mile when my runs were difficult, so I did. I ran 6 miles today.

It's not my greatest time, but I'll take it! I need to keep reminding myself that it's ok not to be as fast as I once was a few weeks ago. I'll get back there. A mile is a mile at any pace. And November is a few months away. I'm aiming to PR at the Space Coast Half this year.

I didn't stop my workout there. I did PiYo Sculpt! OUCH!!! Good thing tomorrow is my rest day cause my legs are killing me right now.

The only thing that is worrying me now, is I have a 10.5 mile run scheduled for Saturday. I'm not sure what pace or ratio I'll be doing. I'm almost thinking that I should do a 3 minute run followed by a 1:30 walk break. I normally don't go over 1 minute on my walk breaks, but under the circumstances I think I'll need it to last the full 10.5 miles. After reading Jeff Galloway's Marathon book, he always recommends running a little slower on your long runs. I'm thinking I may need to listen to him on this. My marathon pace is 11:27 min mile. I guess I'll just aim for that pace on Saturday. I usually stay way ahead of that pace, so when it comes to marathon day I have time to stop for a few photos and maybe a ride:) 

If you made it this far in this post, thanks for listening to me whine!!!