I’ve been running twice a week since New Year’s Day and it’s been going well! I’m so thrilled! I think the combination of that longer break and Frankenshoe has really been helping. I’ve increased my distance to 1.5 miles. I told y’all I was going SLOWLY this time. I’m happy I didn’t have to start back with walk/run intervals. There’s nothing wrong with them, and I’ve used them every time I’ve come back from a break except for this time, but it just feels like I achieved some form of conditioning in November that I could start back running a mile straight through. I’m very, very slow—running about a 15:00 pace right now, but slow running is still running. That will improve as I get back into the swing of things. Once I feel safe adding a third run each week (shooting for early February), I’m going to make that run speedwork to help accelerate my pace. So far I’m not worrying about it since my goal is to run pain free, and that’s the case so far. I was a little worried after Friday’s run, though. I didn’t hurt at all during the run, but had a little soreness on my cool down walk home on the side of my left hip. I stretched and that sat for ten or fifteen minutes, then when I got up, my right hip flexors felt like they didn’t want to support me. They didn’t feel painful per se, but they felt uncomfortable. It eventually wore off, but that’s how it seemed to start last time. I’ve been taking it easy with the biking and trying to do more yoga/walk days on days I don’t run, so we will see how it goes tomorrow. I haven’t felt anything concerning all weekend, so I think it should be okay.

Something that I wanted to touch on a little today was imposter syndrome. If you haven’t heard of it before, basically it describes feeling less competent that other people think you are. I’ve heard many times over the last 6 months or so that people think I’m inspirational with my fitness. It’s so hard for me to hear that and believe that they’re talking about me. I’m the least athletic person in my running group and among most of my friends. I still have such a long way to go. I’ve lost almost 70 pounds already, and still need to lose another 70 to be down to the heavier side of a healthy weight. I made no progress on those numbers last year, but I am more fit than I was at the start of 2020 despite that. Even so, I never know quite how to feel when people tell me I inspire them. Of course it feels great to hear a compliment, but I almost feel like I haven’t earned it yet. Just today the most athletic person I know told me my dedication to running is inspirational and that he thinks about that when he’s struggling with his own runs. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything special. I’m just too stubborn to quit running because I’ve been enjoying it so much. I know this struggle is not unique to me, and I’m sure many of you can relate. I’m going to try to be less hard on myself about it, because the truth is that I’ve worked hard. I’ve had to push goals back farther that I wanted to, but I’m still at least moving forward little by little, and that’s better than quitting when things get hard.