Back on the Horse - for now

The month since my last race on April 13th has been spent on a mix of running, doctors appointments, surgery, recovery and now running again. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we are always concerned about how it is going to affect our running. I guess it is a little defect in the brain that we all have.

I found out at the end of my March that my surgery was going to be scheduled for April 23rd. After a little internal coaxing, I was fine with the fact that I was not going to be able to run the Lehigh Valley Half as I had planned (there were more pressing issues at the time), but already I was thinking how my surgery would affect my running over the next few months and how it would affect, if at all, my plans of a possible marathon at the end of the year.

Prior to my surgery, there was no reason for my running to be affected at all. I wasn't on any medication and there were no pre-op restrictions I had to follow. I decided to keep up my usual routine of 20+ miles per week, including a long run, up until only a couple days before my surgery. In fact some of my best running during the past few years came during the two or three weeks leading up to my surgery, with PRs in two consecutive races and a great 15K time. I was feeling very strong and confident during this period. Keeping up with my schedule was a way of keeping me sane before the surgery and building my fitness up to a point that I wouldn't be adversely affected by a couple week layoff. The only variable was how I would feel after surgery and how long it would take me to get back to my normal running routine. The day after surgery I was pretty out of it with a very sore throat, but I felt considerably better as the days went on. My doctor told me that I didn't have any restrictions, but I wanted to be on the safe side and make sure everything was healing properly before I went back to running. I figured I was in no rush (why take an unnecessary risk if I wasn't training for anything). What would be gained by coming back too early? It was better to be safe than sorry, so I told myself even if I felt good enough to run, I was going to wait at least until I saw my doctor a week or so after my surgery and he gave me the go ahead. Luckily, he told me that my incision was healing very nicely and that I was free to start running again as long as I felt up to it. So, that evening (it was a Thursday) I ran on over to the Thursday group run for my first run in 10 days. I was going to take it slow and not push myself unless I was up to it. Luckily, I felt good throughout the run and didn't seem to feel any ill effects of the surgery or the time off. I then went for another run on Saturday, although not a "long run". I would wait until the next week for that.

It has now been three weeks since my surgery and I feel back to normal running wise. I am back to running my regular schedule and weekend long run of 10 miles, in addition to my spinning and weights day. I am signed up for the Healthy Kidney 10K this weekend, which will be my first race since the Run for One Classic. Hopefully, I'll be close to my old self.

I'm trying to keep up the running as long as possible for the time being because I will most likely have another couple week layoff coming at the end of May/beginning of June and I don't want to fall too far behind if I don't have to. I have two scans coming up during mid June in which I have to go off of my Synthroid medication for a few weeks, and one of the possible side effects is sluggishness/fatigue. Therefore, there is a possibility that I won't be up to running for a little while during that time period. This is the reason that I unfortunately had to step down from the Need for Speed Relay coming up on June 7th. I ran it last year and was looking forward to it, but at this point I have no idea how I will be feeling in the days leading up to the race, so I felt it was fair to the team to allow them to get a new member.

If I do need a layoff of a couple weeks, I'm hoping that I'll be able to bounce back as quickly as I did recently. I feel that I have a large enough mileage and fitness base that I don' think it would be too hard to ease back into my usual routine. First things first - the scans need to come back free and clear. Hopefully if that is the case, I will ease myself back into a routine and possibly think about a marathon at the end of the year (maybe).