On the Road Again

I ran on Friday. And on Saturday. And on Sunday. These instances aren't actually the *first* times I've attempted running since the Great Sking Injury of 2011, but they are the *first* time I've had the okay of my physical therapists, which is what makes them noteworthy. So Friday's running was done on the treadmill at physical therapy, and I was given the green light to run for three minutes so long as it didn't aggravate my knee. It didn't feel great, but having been given the green light, I was really damned if I was going to say so. Saturday I went to the Y and did two minutes of running followed by two minutes of walking. Rinse. Repeat. All told, I did 20 minutes of these intervals to a total of about two miles. The running doesn't feel great or natural,  and I'm also running pretty SLOW. But it's running, and it feels better than it did two or three weeks ago, so I'll take it.

Sunday it was beautiful outside, so I took the dog (an unwilling running partner on his best day of the week) with me to do the whole run/walk routine outside. In retrospect, taking the dog was a bit of sheer genius on my part. The weather was amazing for February, and the running actually felt GOOD. I'd have dropped the interval bit altogether and just run RUN RUN, but the dog doesn't care for running, so it was all I could do to get him to go along with our two minutes of on/off intervals. I tried to push him to five minutes of running a couple of times, but he was having absolutely NONE of it. It's possible the husband coached him ahead of time.

It was the most lovely workout I've had since NYE, and it was hard to keep myself from smiling like a lunatic. On the other hand, I desperately wished for a shirt that read "I don't normally run this slow. I am recovering from an injury."

My knee has been somewhat ouchy all weekend but it feels pretty good today, which I think is promising. I think we're starting to get somewhere with all this. I've got three more weeks of physical therapy (but have been downgraded to twice weekly!) ahead of me yet, so we'll see. I am just now (finally) starting to realize what a number I did on my knee and how long it's going to be before I am running with my regular running partners (they are faster than the dog and don't have to stop and pee as often). Two weeks ago I was wondering whether I'd be ready for an April 10-mile race, and the answer is very clearly no. But I guess it's enough to be running right now, even if it's for two minutes.