A step at a time

It's only been 3 days, but I've been sticking to the personal goal.

Yesterday, for the first time in a really long time, I woke up early as I used to, went to the gym and worked out my chest muscles and then hopped on the treadmill for an easy 1 mile run.

Here's the weekly plan for April:

Sunday: 3-mile outdoor run day
Monday: Lift, chest, 1 mile run
Tuesday: Lift, legs, 1 mile run
Wednesday: 45 minutes cross training cardio
Thursday: Lift, back, 1 mile run
Friday: Lift, legs, 1 mile run
Saturday: Rest

Next month I hope to increase my daily runs to 2 miles a day, and then in June I want to be at 20 miles per week. Hopefully this time I'll avoid injury because it will have been a long, gradual build up of mileage.

So today I did a leg workout and then I did an easy paced 1 mile run on the treadmill.

Not bad. Hope I stay injury-free and that I keep up with the schedule.

Starting Over

Today I'm starting over.

I had to end training last year for the 2006 New York marathon because I developed a stress fracture, which only worsened during my climb and descent of Mt. Kilimanjaro last August.

But today I hope to begin building my base in time to start a training program for this year's marathon.

Sometimes I can feel a little tenderness in my right foot, where I'd developed the stress fracture last year, and sometimes I think I might be developing a new stress fracture in my left tibia. Let's keep my fingers crossed that it's merely a shin splint or something else.

I'd planned to run in the gym because it's so cold out, but it's Easter Sunday and so the gym was closed. I started out doing some yoga, but I realized that if I'm going to be serious about training, I need to be serious about running even when it seems inconvenient. So I put on a few extra layers, and I ran my favorite path, the bridle path from Columbus Circle to the reservoir and back. I took my time, and it didn't hurt. I tried running with more hip action, to engage the hamstrings and hips where I think I may have been using them less post-ACL surgery. Hopefully that will take pressure off of my tibias and foot bones.