Green Light Mean Go!

This is the day I have been waiting 12 months for. The green light to run again.

That has to have been the longest 12 months of my life - and even though Christmas, as always, came around quicker than you can say Jack Robinson it still crawled by at a snail's pace as the wait to run again stretched out agonisingly as the weeks and months rolled slowly by.

All the pilates, stretching, strength training, eliptical training, walking and knees-to-wall has got me through but I was hanging out for a run. And today my physio said the magic words... 'have you been running on your ankle?' So... with his obvious permission, and instructions on how to go about a return to it (his confidence in me being able to run 2km was heartening but not likely) I ventured out into the windy day and took my first running steps since last July.

To be honest, as is mentioned in the posts below, I did actually attempt a few trial runs back in October/November before my back prolapsed again. But they were no good. Any my back and ankle had other plans for me anyway for the first half of this year too. So this was the first real attempt. Back in October before any real strength training or pilates had taken place the 50 or so metres that I attempted were a disaster so I started out today not overly confident...

And rightly so. My form is shocking - not that it was great when I was running regularly - but I was well and truly back to beginner status. My legs felt like lead for the first half kilometre. I was back to heel striking instead of mid foot, my running shoes have worn out and I sounded like a flat-footed duck, my lungs burnt, the uphills were a no go putting too much strain on my back, and my thighs need more strength... but it felt GOOD! And, I even managed 2.5km in bursts.

I could have cried tears of joy. And in fact after grinning like an idiot for a fair amount of my walk/run (and no doubt scaring everyone going in the opposite direction to me), I think I did.

Now, fingers crossed tomorrow brings a good result and no inflamation... when I will probably cry tears of joy again!