Ow. Ow, ow, ow.

I started again.

You may remember me taking up running last year. I was doing really well too, working my way up from not even being able to run for 30 seconds to being able to run for eight minutes straight after a few months. Now, I know that's not impressive to a lot of people, but for me, that was a big deal.

Of course, then I fell off a curb walking in the apartment parking lot one day, messed up my ankle, and had to quit. I always intended to start again after it got better, but then it was summer, and then I had that rough period last fall, then we moved... you get the idea.

I've been thinking about starting again for the past few weeks, and finally decided that today was going to be the day. I dug my running shoes out of the closet, spent half an hour looking for my headphones (my husband had them!) and headed out the door. Last time I started this it took me three tries to make it all the way through Week One, Day One. Today, it took me ONE. I'm extremely proud of myself for this, even though I know it will hurt later.

I headed out and just ran along the streets of my neighborhood since I no longer have access to the fancy treadmill. I discovered that since our neighborhood is made up of mostly cul de sacs, there is a grassy area where they meet in the middle with a long sidewalk running the entire length. In some areas there are just bushes and gravel, but in others it widens out to make a small field big enough to play. There is also a large playground in this area, with basketball courts and a fence that I guess could be used for baseball games. I don't know if it's technically big enough to be called a greenbelt, but it's pretty cool.

I was wearing leggings in the morning, so I went ahead and left them on instead of changing into my usual running pants. Oh my goodness, they were so much more comfortable than having all that excess fabric on my legs! They were just regular cotton ones, so they were a bit warm. That's fine now, but it's going to start to warm up pretty quickly here where I live, so I went to Target last night and picked up a pair of actual running ones that were capris.

My husband has given me his word that he will work with me on this, and will come home for lunch on the days I need to run. We also agreed that if I could keep this up for a month that I could replace my running shoes since they're over three years old. I'll just be replacing them with the current version of the same shoe. I had my gait and all that good stuff measured when I bought these so I know they're right for my feet and stride.

This will be my fifth pair of Asics, and my second of this particular style. I love these shoes!