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 into the one yoga pose I love,

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 ple

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 a victory