Back on the Wagon

The other day I was massaging my feet and realized that they haven't hurt in a couple of weeks. I felt the familiar pang to go running, but I know better than that. So I thought about what I could possibly do to get back into exercising. Honestly, I have little desire to get on my road bike. I have not ridden it since Ironman and I'm sure that she's kind of mad at me, but I just can't do it yet. I thought about maybe going to a gym and trying out an elliptical machine, but I generally hate both the gym AND elliptical machines. Suddenly, it came to me... WALKING! Walking is a lower-impact form of running! I deemed myself brilliant at that moment and decided that I was going to get out into the cool, crisp, pre-winter air and go walking in the morning.

So this morning was my first walk and it felt really great. A friend was supposed to come with me, but after waiting for 10 minutes I decided to just go on my own. I have missed running along the river and just running in general. It felt so good to get outside. Here was my route:



For the past couple of weeks I have had a pretty nasty cold. My ear has gotten infected and it is taking quite a while to get better. It is because of this that I'm not in the pool. Pools + ear infections = bad news for me.

However, I hope to get back in the pool soon enough and with this walking stuff, I'm pretty excited to get back into training mode. That's the beauty of taking time off - it really makes you want to get back into it. I am currently making goals for next season and planning out my off-season from January to April. I'm even starting to itch to get on the trainer, but I'm going to purchase some training DVDs so that I don't get super bored right away. There's plenty of time to get on the trainer... no need to rush it.