Back to my roots

All this injury recovery has me working out alone, which is what I always did before this year. It's good to get back to it.

I ran for the first time today since the accident. That is, if you don't count the 1-minute run I attempted on Thursday. I did an hour walk, and at 45 minutes, I tried to start running. It did not go well. Lots of pain and stiffness, and no power from that leg.

Talk about demoralizing. A week and a half ago, I ran for three hours. Then Thursday I struggled to run for one minute.

That's what made it so awesome when I ran for 30 minutes Saturday. It felt so good! I ran fast and smooth and it felt almost like nothing was wrong.

I had forgotten how much running is part of who I am. Swimming and cycling both came about later, when I decided to try triathlons. But running has always been with me. Even in elementary school, when I was terrible at most of the sports offered (ball sports) I always could run. In high school, I tried to do basketball, but the only part I was good at was the conditioning before the season started. (The running and weightlifting.)

I finally wised up and figured out the running was my thing, and joined the track team.

In college and as an adult, I didn't always run consistently, but there was never a time when I couldn't just head out the door and finish a three-mile run. Well, maybe when I was nine months pregnant I couldn't. But other than that, I've always been able to run, even after a long break from it.

I don't think I realized how much my identity was wrapped up in it until I couldn't do it for a week. I can't imagine how people cope who are told they can't ever run again after an injury.

Anyway, the great thing about that week off was discovering the sheer joy of running again: that amazing and unlikely ability we humans have to get two legs under our big selves and somehow propel ourselves forward smoothly without falling over.

It really is something.

I feel like me again.

Oh yeah, I also swam

I swam Alum Creek for 1.5 hours this morning. E. coli warnings be darned. It's one of the few options left. The pool is way too boring for me to do laps for 90 minutes, and I was looking to practice in a little bit of chop. The quarry is covered in scum, and some college kids were cliff diving Friday and one didn't come back up. The police/fire dive team pulled his body out around sunrise Friday. It shouldn't effect me swimming there, but it does a little bit, mentally at least.

Anyway, here's Alum Creek Beach when I arrived:









And here's another photo after the sun came up: