Searching For Allison

July has been a good month to me for several reasons. 1.  I got to go on vacation to St.  Augustine with my family, catch up with some friends, and this is where I started running for the first time in quite a while. 2.  I got to go to Niagra Falls (with most excellent company) and experience how beautiful and awesome mother nature is and be reminded of how small I am in this whole game of life. 3.  My running went from non-existent to capping at just above 80 miles  (82.9 miles to be exact) for the month (a few were even with my mini-me and on the trails). So all in all I have no room to complain; however, because I am always honest and open (perhaps so much so that it can be deemed a fault) I will share some of my frustrations and what I am learning. To begin, it has been roughly three months that I have not had full mobility in my left leg.  This is frustrating. The easiest way for me to test my mobility is by trying to get in...

I was not going to run today. I had a not so good night with little sleep, and I just felt all sorts of emotional. People often say that if you put in the effort and work (no matter what it is for) you will see gains. I am starting to question this in a lot of life's aspects. However, today's run greeted me with welcome progress. I have been running in the heat of the day lately. Sure, it doesn't make for any kind of an easy run, but I feel a bit more accomplished after each one (no matter the outcome) since my mileage is low and pace is slow.  Adding the heat/humidity combo seems to offer some kind of reward. Today I left with the intention of running between 2-2.5 miles.  It was gross out so I kept slowing my pace, reminding myself that pace is not important right now...it is that I CAN in fact run, and that I am re-learning how to fall in love with this sport.  As I looped back into my neighborhood, and clicked from the time to see what my distance was, I was p...

It is a crazy concept how much more care-free I can feel (with respect to running and where I currently am) while on vacation in contrast to how I feel this week back on my home turf. Injury has not been fun, and being knocked back to square one, while humbling and a new journey, has been a bit frustrating this week.   I miss being able to run for hours. I miss the trails. I miss feeling like death in 50 milers (but then feeling the thrill of the finish) and two 100 miler attempts. I miss leg turn over (which I guess means I miss speed). I miss endurance. I miss just missing a BQ in my marathon and knowing I was soooooo close. It is ok to miss that short list and things that aren't listed, because (I think) that is normal. Flashback to vacation week in Florida: On a positive note, I finished a 5k on the 4th of July in Florida...pain free.  Yes, it may have been my slowest 5k ever:  29:32 (I will say I am no longer ashamed of times....a finish is...