Baby Steps: Re-learning to run

Some people experience accidents... surgery... or some physical change to their bodies that impact their running speed and/or endurance levels and they have to take time to allow their bodies to recover or re-learn how to do the activities that they did effortlessly in the past.

I tried to run yesterday... for the first time since August 2007... seven months ago... I thought I could "Run" some interval then walk for the distance of 4 miles, but after "WOG'ing" for a mile and a half, my legs just gave out.

...they felt stiff and heavy... very rigid and rock like... I wasn't sure what was happening.

I'm a marathon'er I thought... I'm a triathlete... an endurance triathlete, but my bodies message was to slow down or stop. I stopped.

Initially I felt pretty discouraged... thinking that my plans for completing an Olympic Distance Triathlon this year were somehow now unrealistic. My feelings were hurt as I had expected so much more from my body than it was able to give in that moment... I withdrew emotionally and went home.

I realize now that I must be patient... "Baby Steps" as a dear triathlete told me today... I know from past experience that the body is resilient and amazing... and usually responds well with slow, consistent increments of distance and speed.

The solution is simple... I just have to stay with it...

...but in this moment, it seems like a marathon's distance away... for now I will take Baby Steps... one foot at a time... remaining balanced and hopeful...

...soon I will run!