Back in the Groove

89 Days to Portland
187 Days to Houston

I'm back to running after taking a week off.  I did manage to fit in one day on the elliptical, but I was staying strictly away from actual running.  I wanted my Achilles to heal (ha!).  Anyway, yesterday I tried running again.  I spent the weekend in the car--almost the whole weekend. After work on Thursday I got in the car with my sister and her friend and drove from Houston to Florida to watch the last shuttle launch--we didn't sleep at all.  After almost 48 hours awake and being stuffed into a loaded car (we picked up my cousin in Pensacola), I was pretty exhausted when we finally got back in the early hours of Sunday.  I slept in, so I needed to wait until later in the day to run.

I was supposed to do my eight mile run.  Technically it was the long run for the week.  Luckily the week I needed to take off was a recovery week anyway.  Everything was cut back to give my body some time to heal.  I started running outside at about 5:30.  I don't know exactly what the temperature was in degrees, but I can tell you that it was effing hot.  I managed about 3.5 miles before I returned to my house and hopped on the treadmill.  I hate treadmill work, but I suppose it is preferable to melting into a glob of slimy goo. 

Usually I get incredibly bored when I run on the treadmill--even with music.  I usually do okay with the television or a movie on, but I tried something different yesterday.  I listened to an audiobook.  It worked really well for me.  I didn't have a good beat to follow, but that isn't very important on a treadmill.  The machine keeps you on pace or you fall off!  I was transported to a different location and, because of the work required to imagine the locations and situations, I didn't get bored and just stare around for something to amuse me.  I also found a way to fix the cord to my earphones so that I don't jerk them out of my ears.  I first tried running the wire up my shirt.  That worked to a certain extent.  I was no longer catching the cord with my hand and pulling them out.  The cord kept sliding down, though, and the shirt would eventually pull hard enough to pull the earphones out.  I ran the cord through the strap of my jogging bra.  The bra, being much tighter than my shirt, kept everything in place.  I had a strange little indention from the wire, but all in all it worked very well. 

Am I healed from my injury?  Maybe not completely, but I'm much better.  I didn't have a problem running yesterday and I was only a little sore and stiff this morning.  I'm in recovery mode until Wednesday, now.  I'm going to get some exercise in this afternoon by mowing my lawn.  I'm facing a long run this week that will be the last run at a distance I've done before.  Twelve miles.  After that all my long runs (other than in recovery weeks) are at new and longer distances.  I'm half way through my training.  And I'm getting scared.