Official RETURN to RUNNING!

I got the WORD from the man that I can start running again! YEA BABY! It is a HAPPY DAY here in Chez moi.

This morning I leashed Desidog and dressed in my wicked cute runningskirts.com choco skirt and put on my TALL SOCKS so I could look cute and be warm, and went for a CORE Run. The rules of a CORE run according to the witch Dr:

1. run EASY.
2. concentrate on FORM.
3. stop to STRETCH at .5 miles and again at 1.5 miles, and again every 10 -15 minutes of running (hip flexor stretch)
4. PLANKS for 2 minutes at 10 minute intervals.
5. LISTEN to my body and stop if the knee pain gets distracting (i.e. compromises form).

I decided to do my usual 3 miles, broken into a 2 mile loop and a 1 mile loop, incase the pain was bad and I had to walk home. I started my Garmin and off we went.

It was slow. Desidog requested to run free because I was not running fast enough. I agree Desidog. An 11:20 pace is not fast enough for me either. My legs felt like lead. My stomach felt weird. My back hurt. My head was spinning. It was going poorly.

5 minutes in I stopped to stretch. I got a "look" from a fellow runner. Get over yourself dude, stretching is my new BFF.

I got up, and started to run again. At a 9:15 pace. And that's how the rest of the run went. I stopped for planks, got up, felt sluggish, looked down at watch - 9:20's until they turned into 9:15's. And then I let my mind and heart wander, and ~sigh~ this is love.

At mile 2.5 I stopped to stretch, and this time when I got back up, it wasn't exactly perfect feeling. So I jogged until mile 2.66, when I had to stop. Then I walked home for another 2 minutes of planks - which was the hardest 2 minutes of planks EVER. Total distance, 3 miles.

I think I stopped at the right time too, because 10 minutes of ice and the pain is GONE and I feel great. WOO HOO!!! I want to RUN again tomorrow... and, I think if the weather cooperates, that's exactly what I will do.