Getting Back To Running

I took my first steps toward changing my stride today, but about that in a minute. First, my run this morning. I had not run since December 15 last year until this morning. It's been 7 weeks to the day since I had my screw removed from my tibia. I am now allowed to run again with the hopes that the hole left in my tibia has filled in enough that the stress from running will not cause a stress fracture to develop. So, before work this morning I got up and had some coffee with the dog and prepared for the cold morning. It's a lot easier to prepare for a 15 minute run in the cold than a 2 to 3 hour bike ride in the cold, wind plays a huge difference. Setting out for my run I didn't know what exactly to expect. Starting out I felt pretty labored and was thinking that I really do have a lot of work to do before my upcoming races in May. As the run went along I was starting to fall back into place and enjoy myself. I knew I was moving along pretty quick towards the end of the run but I didn't know how fast. I don't know how many miles I could sustain at that pace but I ended up doing a 2 mile run split 6:57 and 5:58! Dang! I know it's only two miles, but I am coming back from a long hiatus and an "injury." Negative splitting a workout is always a good thing but by a minute!? That's a lot. Like I said I don't know how long I could have held that, but my races this season only require 3 to 6.2 mile runs. I can wing that! Haha. I don't have to run a marathon at the end any more. If I keep this speed, I could be a real threat out there on the Xterra courses this season.

So starting out slow, I wanted to work my legs back into running. But it's hard to increase mileage by 10% coming from 0 miles. So where do I start? I figured I'd just lump a few short runs of a mile to 3 miles over the first few days before ramping up. An easy way to do this and I felt might be safer, is pulling two-a-days. So after I got home from work I went out for another run. Plan was to do another 1.5 to 2 miles. Amazingly though, my Merrell Trail Gloves were delivered by FedEx today. This works out perfectly. Coming off a big running break and slowly building miles back up and I get the opportunity to work on and change my stride for the better. So, I did the first .6 of a mile in the new Merrell Trail Gloves (pictured below) before swinging back by the house and switching back over to my Asics. Rounding out the run I still averaged 6:19 for 2.1 miles. It feels good. I could immediately feel how the new shoes changed my stride and proper running form just followed. There wasn't a huge effort on my part to change it with these 0mm heel to ball drop. They felt awesome and during the rest of the run, I could already feel my left calve tightening up and getting sore. I'm excited to do more work with these new shoes and am really hoping to do my races in them. At only 6 oz. they will make my feet very light and nimble as I'm dashing through the woods.