It was back on last Wednesday when I visited my doctor, Karen Holzer, who was pleased with how things have been going and gave me the good news, I must say, a week or so earlier than I anticipated. As pleased as I was, I was still a little nervous and almost afraid of what might happen during those first few tentative steps. But my confidence has been steadily increasing as the function, strength and range of motion has improved week by week. So as one of favourite quotes goes, it was time to walk up the steps (ie, run) rather than just looking up the steps.
I should clarify what running actually means at the moment. Karen has put me on a strict and conservative program for the next 4 weeks, starting out in week one with 2 min walk / 30 sec run for 20 mins. So it's hardly running, but it is compared to the last 3.5 months. By week four I'll be up to 1min walk / 2min run for 30 mins...now that's getting a little more like it!!! Of course all this assumes everything goes OK...fingers crossed.
So Saturday was day 1 of the comeback. I was excited when I woke and spent time planning when I would fit in the 20 mins of walk/run that was scheduled. After all, I wanted to derive maximum satisfaction from this outing!! It turned out that the afternoon was going to fit in best, after a social outing to the Dandenongs for lunch. That trip just whetted my appetite for running, the Dandenongs being the venue for many great training runs earlier in the year.
I re-charged my Garmin watch after blowing the dust off it, selected my attire to make sure I looked like a runner again and headed for the door. The instructions were to run only on flat ground, which meant Albert Park lake was the venue of choice...even though I wouldn't even make a full lap in the allocated time. Wanting to maximise the experience I decided not to start the session until I walked down to the lake from home, about 400m. Then I would officially start the stopwatch and start....walking!!
There's nothing like baby steps of progress. Dressed in my running gear with GPS stopwatch going and I was only walking, no, power-walking. 1 minute passed by, then 1:30, then 1:50...1:55, 56, 57, 58, 59. 2:00 minutes...time to run!! Actually, it was a jog...as per instructions. Normally if anyone asks "how was your jog?" I quickly correct them to say that I'm a runner, not a jogger. However I swallowed my pride this time to be...just...a...jogger. But how good did it feel. Halleluiah!!!
The 30 seconds of jogging passed by in a flash and I was back to walking, but with still 7 more segments of jogging to go. I turn around after the fourth segment, barely a quarter of the way around the lake and made my way back. Would the return trip be faster? Should I try to make it faster? No. As I say to many people...hasten slowly.
My achilles was feeling good, really good. My calf felt weak, and my legs felt kind of wobbly - it was kind of like learning to run again. My GPS watch barely registered anything but nonetheless I'll make my first run training diary entry for a long time. 2.66km in 20mins. Snail pace.
After the run I was glowing with excitement. It had all gone well. It even inspired me to make my first ever Facebook status update, such was the significance of it. My next session is on Monday, then Wednesday then Friday. Then I move onto the next progression in the program...2 min walk, 1 min run.
A football coach was once quoted as saying "The world is slow but the Ox is patient." I don't know what he meant, but if I did I would think I've been a good Ox for a while. Either way, it's just damn good to run again.
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