I Can Run A Mile

I wrote this post 2 1/2 years ago after I had Rylan and today I was reminded of it. Today I ran a 5k on the treadmill without walking and in 30 minutes, my personal best and only 4 months after having Miles. For a lot of people that's not a big deal, but if you read on you'll see why it means a lot to me.

I can run a mile. I can do it without stopping. I can do it without slowing down to walk. Most people would say what's the big deal? The big deal is that this used to seem like one of the hardest things for me to do. It used to feel like some one was stabbing me in the back with every stride. I could only go a few yards, maybe a quarter mile on a good day, before breaking down in tears from the pain. And now? Now, I can run a mile with no tears. I can run for two or three miles if I really feel like it, and I'm starting to feel more like it every time I go for a run.

So for those of you that are a little lost, here's the back story. Back when I was a diver, I was in great shape. I had six pack abs and could bench press my weight. I was strong and you could see it by looking at me. What you couldn't see was how weak my back was. About 18 years ago - wow I'm getting old - I injured my back diving platform. And instead of letting it heal properly I continued to dive platform until it got to the point that I was in tears on a daily basis and the physical therapist told me I had to stop because I had a partially torn muscle in my lower back. I took the time off and healed, but never fully recovered. My back was weak.

When I returned to diving I was still strong, maybe even stronger, in my arms, legs, stomach, but not my back. The doctors told me everything was fine it was just going to hurt until I was able to strengthen the muscles in my back again. I worked to get it stronger, but I still had pain. It was much more manageable, but it was still pain. And the doctors said that was how it was going to be, keep trying to strengthen it, but I'd probably always have to live with some degree of pain. Fun right? Not so much.

So until about 5-6 years ago I had pain, it was so much better than before, but I still couldn't run a full mile without stopping. And you ask what happened 5-6 years ago? I got pregnant with Jake. And I had TERRIBLE back pain throughout the pregnancy. I got massages every other week to help manage the pain. My back felt almost as bad as it had when I had the torn muscle. But something funny happened after I gave birth to Jake, my back felt better. It felt stronger. Now I don't have anything to back this up, but my theory is that for the first time since injuring my back, and maybe the first time in my life, my stomach muscles couldn't pick up the slack for my weak back. My back HAD to get stronger. And with each pregnancy my back hurt a little less during and felt a little stronger after.

And so now here we are, three kids later, and I'm able to run a mile. I'm still a terrible runner, a 10 minute mile seems fast to me, but I AM a runner. I was actually able to run almost all the way through my pregnancy with Rylan. I started running again a few weeks ago. I'm only doing it a few days a week at most for right now. And when I am able to, I am running 2 or 3 miles at a time and doing a total workout of 4-5 miles. I'm starting to do sprint workouts as well to hopefully improve my speed. I have to say that I'm really enjoying it and feel bad when I don't have time or am just too tired to get in a workout. Who would have thought? Its amazing how much more enjoyable running is now that I don't have pain.

So running a mile might not seem like that big a deal, but to me it means a lot!