Just like starting over...

I’ve been back on the running/training bandwagon for about three weeks now. It’s been six weeks since my surgery, and I’ve recovered nicely. But taking three weeks off running? That was harder than I expected.

I haven’t had much of a chance to get outside, so I’ve mostly been running on the treadmill at the Y (where the kids can go to activities.) But my cardio suffered from three weeks off. It’s only just beginning to improve. I used to warm up between 6.0 and 6.5 miles per hour on the treadmill – my first week back, I could barely make it up to 6.0 without feeling like death warmed over.

Huffing and puffing, I’ve been trying to keep up with my training schedule of running (or some other form of cardio), five times a week. A trip to Las Vegas this weekend will derail that a bit, but basically I am getting back to normal. I ran as high as 7.2 yesterday on the treadmill, and even went to a spinning class on Tuesday morning.

So now I really need to find a goal race for all this training. I’m aiming for a 10K, sometime in October, just to make sure I’m right back to where I was before embarking on half marathon training. (The half marathon clinic starts at the beginning of November, and I am so there!) The goal is to run the 10K between 55 and 59 minutes. We’ll see how it goes.

I am also allowed to start weight training again soon. I am really going to try to do more strength and weight training. I know that’s my weakest area (no pun intended), and I know that to run faster, I need to be stronger. Next week, after Vegas, it will all start again.

In the meantime, I’m heading into vacation mode. I tend not to take a lot of time off (self-employment does that to you – you either work and get paid, or you don’t), so it’s pretty exciting that I am going to be gone from Saturday to Wednesday with NO e-mail or Internet access. (I’m sure the hotel will have some, but I am not bringing my laptop!!) I’m also not fooling myself into bringing my running shoes, thinking I’ll go for a run. I know I won’t. We are going to celebrate Mike’s birthday (and his friends’ birthdays) and have a good time. We’ll be walking a lot, and that will have to suffice. I’m going to do a 6K run tomorrow before we leave (our flight doesn’t leave until 9 p.m.), and a 6K run on Thursday after we get home. The rest of the time, I’m going to enjoy myself.

So that’s the update for now. I may be starting over – a bit – but at least I didn’t give up.

Happy trails…