On the Road Again

Starting on June 26th, I was finally able to go off of my low iodine diet and go back on my thyroid medication. It was a long four weeks, but I am now hopeful that my life will begin to get back to normal. I was keeping up a modest running schedule for the first couple of weeks before my scans (17-20 miles per week until June 8th, with no run longer than 5 miles), but I haven't had a "normal" running schedule for approximately 3 weeks.

Although I was able to eat normally again and was back on Synthroid, I knew that I couldn't thrust my body back into a 20 mile per week schedule right away, along with cross training, and I made sure to ease back into a routine. The last thing I wanted was to get injured and have to take off even more time. I ran 4 miles on June 26th and 6 miles on June 29th - my first 6 mile loop in almost a month. I was able to get in a time of 52:38, not including two water stops. I was definitely happy with this time. The week of June 30th was my first "complete" week back. I was anxious to see how my body would react. I was getting used to not running and spinning for several weeks, so I knew that the first week back would be hard. However, the longer I waited, the harder it would become. Therefore, last week I ran with the downtown group for about 6.8 miles (ran a slower pace than usual of about 9:10-9:25) , went to spinning on Tuesday, took a day off on Wednesday, ran 6 miles with the Thursday group (time of 51:34 with the help of GW), took off on Friday, did weights on Saturday, and ran about 8.2 miles with GW and NH's marathon training group (very hot and humid, but happy with time of approximately 9:05 pace). While it will take several weeks to get back to "normal" I was satisfied with my first week back.

I am happy that I did not sign up for the NYC marathon. Doing so would have put too much pressure on myself to rush back and get right into marathon training with no grace period. I will "allow" myself a month or so to ease back into base mileage and evaluate how I am doing at the end of July. If I am feeling good and strong and have the urge to do a marathon, then I will still be able to register for the Philadelphia Marathon on November 23rd and not lose any significant time of the full 4 month training regimen.

I am looking forward to getting back on the roads and running with everyone again.