On the path to running again

I have read that while the heart and lungs get acclimated to running very quickly, it takes the muscles, tendons and bones over a year to get up to snuff. I went from never running more than 3.1 miles (the distance required in a sprint distance triathlon) to training for a half marathon almost overnight. Of course, my BF kept saying that I was increasing my distances to fast .... but what did he know? I had goals, after all!!

I believe that this is what caused my hip flexor tear last fall. I was in good shape due to lots of biking and swimming so the dramatic increases in run distance didn't seem to be such a a big deal. Well - not this time. Since my last blog in January, I have been consistently decreasing the amount of time that I walked in my run/walk intervals. Slowly over time, I have gone to all running but have kept the total distances fairly short.

Once I was running a full mile with no pain, I decided to up my once a week run to twice a week runs of 1 mile each. Then 1.5 miles, then 2. Then I left one run at 2 miles and started upping the distance on the 2nd run. This week I will run 3 times for a total of 8 miles. Then one more week of 10% increases to each short run.

And then finally, I will start the Runners World Running Coach program to train for my half marathon in November. It is a 16 week program so I have time to do it twice before the race. The first time thru, I will use slower pace goals and moderate distance increases. That should prepare me to start working on speed in July. I have gone over this plan with my doctors and they seem to think it is reasonable.

I'm excited to get started.

This morning's run

2.25 in 22 minutes