Ready to Run

It's been close to a full year since I've had to let my running fall out of my life.  And I miss it.  I miss it a lot.  Running has been one of the constants in my life for years.  Last February, two weeks out of a half marathon, I had to stop.  Cold turkey.  My tummy was incredibly angry and I had no idea why.  Tests, a variety of medications later, and a whole lotta poking and prodding, I know why now.  For the last two or three months I've been pretty stable.  And I'm ready to run.  

Or at least make a running attempt.  I'm at the heaviest I've ever been in my life.  But I don't want to run just for weight loss (mind you, fitting into all my clothes - not a bad thing), I want to run for how it makes me feel.  I want to run with my furry little friends.  I want my muscles to go POW! when I flex.  The worst part is I know what it's like to be a "runner", and I know just how badly the first 6 months are going to suck.  Mostly because I'm in the worst shape of my life right now.  

So I have a plan.

I plan to fit in 4-5 20 minute runs a week.  On the treadmill if I have to, or outside if I can get home early enough.  I plan to keep this up for 2 months (it'll take this long to get some minor condition back).  Then I plan to run 4-5 30 minute runs a week.  I plan to do this for another 2 months.  This puts me nice and close to summer.  Next, the plan is to bump it up to 5k (3 miles) if I'm not already there.  And do this for 2 months.  By September of 2011 I want to be running 10k (6 miles).  And that's the distance I'd like to stick with for next little while.  This should be slow enough it won't tick my guts off.  And give my body some time to adapt to an active lifestyle again.  My goal race is the Melissa's Road Race in Banff, Alberta.