Taking it slowly...

One of the biggest problems in stopping any form of exercise, is how much strength/speed/endurance you lose.  While in the past I have been able to blame this on being lazy, my injury - followed by hernia repair surgery - have kept me from doing anything physical for far to long.  I had to stop karate, couldn't run, couldn't do any exercise for fear of making the hernia worse (not to mention how much it hurt), or after the surgery, so as to not cause it to reoccur. 

Well, it has now been 2 months and 4 days since my surgery, and 5 (or so) months since I was in my last stages of running - when I was able to run through the pain.  Because of the short time frame, a part of me feels that I should still be able to go out and run 13 miles like I did in November.  Unfortunately, my body doesn't agree.  When you add in the trying a new running style, and completely different running shoes - my body REALLY doesn't agree.

So, I am attempting to take it slowly this time.  I learned last saturday that trying to run 4 miles in the VFFs at this point was a huge mistake.  I found this out at 2.4 miles, when I came off the top of a large hill turned a corner to head down hill - and my right calf was in agony. 

This might be a good time to pause and mention that I have the greatest wife in the world.  No seriously.  I have heard other husbands say it, but my wife got up from a nap, gathered the kids into the car - and came and picked me up - 2.4 miles from home.  After finding out I could still walk we did some grocery shopping -but still.. This woman came and saved me a long painful walk home.   I have the greatest wife in the world... Now back to the subject at hand.

So, considering I have basically tried to do the same thing a couple of times and ended up with bad results, I thought I might try something different.  I am cutting back my attempts at mileage in the VFFs.  Today I did 3  miles on the Dread-Mill in my Asics.  I wanted to run further, but my calf was a little sore even before I ran, so I didn't.  I wanted to run in my VFFs, but figured 3 miles in those would be a bad idea.  My goal was to run 2 to 3 miles, then see if I felt well enough to do a mile or so in my VFFs. I wanted to, but decided discretion was the better part of valor.

So maybe tomorrow, before doing my cardio work out, a mile or so in the VFFs might be in order. But for tonight, finishing off the evening with a wonderful sandwich!  Hummus, chicken, swiss cheese, green peppers, onions, cucumbers, sprouts and lettuce inside of a whole wheat pita!  (I may not take the best pictures of food -but it was tasty!