Life's little adventures, accompanied by a running watch

Monday, December 19, 2011

Baby steps

Had a date with my surgeon today to follow up from my hernia surgery last Friday.  I’ve been feeling better each day, so felt like this would be a fairly benign visit.  And I was right!  When I asked him if “this is normal”, he responded with, “Oh yes, and in fact, that’s one of the best healing I’ve seen”.  God I love being an over achiever in the healing department.

He then asked, “I suppose you’d like to know when you can start running again and resume your normal life”.  My response might surprise some of you.  I answered, “I’m interested of course, but I feel like I know my body well enough to know when it’s time to run again”.  I don’t say that in a cocky, look-at-me-being-a-doctor sort of way; I say it in a truthful, look-at-me-being-patient-with-my-healing sort of way.  I also told him (pointing to my incision area), “I only want to do this once”.  He concurred.

Since I’ve already been walking Bella as much as possible to get myself moving again, I’ll continue to do so for the rest of this week.  I will work on speed (hee, that sounds funny) and on stretching my stride, but I will hold back on any jogging for this week.  Depending on how I’m feeling on Christmas Day, I may just surprise myself with a little Christmas gift in the form of a jog and see where that takes me.

I want no setbacks and I want no further doctor visits.  I’ve always erred on the side of caution and that strategy has always worked for me.  I’ve let go of the winter races I had hoped to do this year and will soon focus on putting together a two-part training plan for Boston:  1)  training to get strong again (now thru mid-Jan), and 2) training to get myself to the starting line of Boston 2012 (mid-Jan thru April 16).

Not sure how this will all play out, and not sure if I’ve got another 3:57 in me come April.  I am sure that I will take some baby steps now in order to ensure that I can take some grown up steps later with a goal of celebrating another strong Boston finish.  Who knows, maybe this forced rest period will result in a stronger me:  mentally and physically.  Sounds good, so I’m going to run  walk with it!  

14 comments:

  1. It's very smart of you to be so careful. You are going to do great at Boston--don't worry about your time. Just look forward to how much you will enjoy being part of it.

    Happy healing!

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  2. Very smart planning!!! Glad you're healing well!

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  3. Sounds like you are being very smart with you healing!!

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  4. Glad you are feeling better. We are heading to byfield Friday so I guess we won't get a run together this time. Another time for sure!

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  5. Way to go listening to your body. You'll be back to normal in no time.. and I hope you get your little Christmas run!

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  6. I'm so bummed....I would've loved to share a run while you're in Byfield. Hopefully by next time you're this way, I'll be able to keep up :)

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  7. Ease into it and you'll be back in the swing of things before you know it. I love your idea of a jog for a Christmas present!!

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  8. so sorry you are going through this but sounds like you have a great attitude!

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  9. Wooooww! i am super impressed! you are going to win out and come back stronger than ever :) :)

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  10. Thanks All! I actually do feel like my return will make me stronger than ever, so I appreciate the encouragement :)

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  11. Good for you beng so smart about your recovery! It's so tempting to rush back into things...especially when you miss it so much. But by listening to your body and really giving it time to heal completely, you'll co,e out of this much stronger! Smart woman!

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  12. Thanks for the encouragement! So far, so good :)

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