I'm Baaack!

Okay, so being sick took a lot out of me - I haven't been that sick in a while!  But I'm officially finishing the antibiotic tomorrow and I went back to work yesterday.  Since I'd spent about ten days on the couch, I thought it best to put off my first run back until today.

My thinking is that I'll repeat week 4, which was the last week I was doing, because I haven't run in two weeks. Since I wasn't that far along on the 5k program, two weeks is a LOT of time.  But I was determined to do week four, no matter how slowly I ran, which meant I was doing three minutes running, 90 seconds walking, five minutes running, two and a half minutes walking, three minutes runnings, 90 seconds walking, five minutes running.

Awesome.

Fortunately, I had a nice day for it.  It's not advisable to get right back into running on a very cold day if you have lung issues like I do, particularly if you're just getting over semi-bronchitis, because the cold air is very hard on your lungs.  It's been chilly here again, but by mid-day here, it was 51 degrees and sunny - perfect!

It was also windy, and you know how much I love the wind. Not.  But anyway, I started to come up with excuses not to run today, but I finally just told myself to shut up and went out to do it anyway.

It was definitely a brutal run.  The first three minutes were killer, and I was sure I wouldn't be able to do five minutes straight.  But I really paced myself and pushed myself to do it.  And I did!  Sure, I felt like vomiting by the time I was done, but I could still breathe, mostly, and it felt good to be back to running.

Last night, when I was sitting on the couch, my legs were so on edge.  That seems to go away when I'm running regularly, so it was definitely a sign to me to get back out there!

I can tell I lost some muscle too while I was sick because my legs are really feeling the run tonight.  But that's a great feeling to have - it means I did something that warrants sore muscles!

So this week, it looks like I'm doing runs today, Thursday and Saturday morning - then I leave for another trip. This one's in Orlando, where it's been quite warm. If it's warm and humid, I'll probably run inside (I've already checked to make sure they have a gym), but if it's not too humid, I'll be running on the jogging trail that's on the property where I'm staying.  It will be nice to have some real sunshine!  It's been quite a while.

Let's hope I don't pick up anything else on my flights this time, and can keep running.  I got a postcard the other day for the River to Bay 5k in May, and I REALLY would like to do it.  I would just be about up to 5k distance by then, which would be pushing it, but I think it would be nice to get back into racing, even if I'm not very competitive!