Who has two thumbs and ran outdoors for the first time in three months? This guy!

Well hello there and happy 2012, blog readers. I didn't realize my last post was days before Christmas. I guess I took the holidays off from blogging. I've still been pretty active on Facebook though, so if you don't see anything from me here check there.

So where were we? Oh, yeah. I wrote my last injury update, and it turned out to be my last injury update! I went to the doctor who declared my stress fractured foot fit for duty and told me to not come back unless I needed him. Hopefully I won't. He also told me to wear cross trainers as shoes for a couple weeks and to lay off the running for a couple weeks too. I didn't tell him I'd already been using my non-boot time to get reacquainted with the treadmill.

Anyway, my goal for January 1, 2012 was to run outdoors for 30 whole minutes provided there was no precipitation falling. Everything was on track to do that, and then, New's Year's Day:

6:00AM - Not being the partying type, I arose bright eyed, excited, and a little anxious/nervous about running outdoors for the first time in over three months.

6:10AM - Weather Station Running Moron reported an outdoor temperature of 29 degrees. There was no wind. It was a crisp, still morning. Perfect for running. The only problem was that it was still pitch black outside. I wanted to at least wait until the sun came up to go run.

7:00AM - It was light enough out. I decided which route I was going to take, an easy out and back that didn't have much in the way of hills or elevation change. I got dressed, tied up the shoes, put the earphones in my head, and grabbed a watch to make sure I ran only the 30 minutes I planned to. The Garmin was unwanted for this one.

7:10AM - After a good warm up I hit it. Maybe a little tentative at first, but by the time I was out on to the main road about a quarter mile from my house I was fine. I was taking it nice and easy, paying attention to what my feet were saying, and working on my breathing, which isn't as automatic as you might think, even though I'd been working up to this on a treadmill for a couple weeks.

7:25AM - I reached the point where I wanted to turn around -- 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back -- but I was only about 20 seconds from the end of the road I was on. I figured I'd just walk a little longer as part of my cool down in exchange for running just a little further out.

7:30AM - On my way back home I realized I was doing pretty well. I wasn't leaving a trail of fire in my stead but I wasn't running so slowly as to embarrass myself either. I was also nice and warm on a cold morning. It was feeling really good to run outside!

7:37AM - I was at about the point where I figured I'd hit the 30 minute mark, especially with my running a little further out before turning around, but I still had a few minutes to spare. Run on!

7:40:09AM - I ended my run exactly where it started, although I had to run an extra 9 seconds to get there. That's good enough. I walked around for a while and made it back inside before 8:00AM. My foot was a little sore, but otherwise fine. Perfectly fine.


Off the sidelines and back in the game!
In the end, I actually had a negative split for the second half of my run (I'm guessing since I have no hard data to back up the assertion), and my average pace was about 45 seconds faster than any of my treadmill runs that ramped up to this outdoor run. I was still over a minute off my old average pace for that kind of distance (3.25 miles), but for my first outdoor run in over three months I'll take it! Also, it was something of a shock to my system to breathe in such cold weather while running after having not done it at all this year.

But now, after taking a rest day yesterday, I'm ready to run again. I'm going to ramp up to a 35 minute run this coming weekend and then I'll see where I am and think about beginning training for my (hopefully) triumphant return to racing on April 1. Right now, this year isn't looking to be fast, but it is looking to be healthy. Who can ask for anything more?

I hope your new year is starting off with healthy and happy runs too!