Monday's Motivation: I'm baaaack!

Today was my first day back to running.  To catch anyone up to date that needs it, I had taken a month off since my marathon to help heal my issues with plantar fasciiatis.  It helped to a large degree, but to say the problem is gone or fixed is not accurate.  I'm not willing to just never run again so I'm back at it to see what happens.  I've been wearing this sock at night and it's helping.  I'm also massaging and icing and rolling the heck out of my problem foot.  It all helps, but does not alleviate the issue completely.  I will admit, I'm a huge flip flop fan.  However today at the store I bought a new, better pair of flip flops.  Ones with support on the side.  I'm not convinced my choice of shoes is a big factor to the problem.   A factor, yes.  This problem was rearing it's ugly head and throwing fits well before I was in flip flop season so I'm not giving up on flip flops so easily.

Talking about it just frustrates me.  I want a clear cut problem that is specifically diagnosed and given "easy" steps in fixing.  Easy as in do A, B & C to fix the problem.  I don't care if the fixing includes 26 steps if that is what it takes then I will do it.  So far though I don't know why my left foot is giving me such pain and different things on different days seem to help (or not) the problem.

Anyway, I'm suppose to ease my way back into my running.  Ease or easy is not really in my vocabulary, not in this sense.  I tend to go all out & in big ways, yet it just seems normal to me.  Plus I have been itching to get back to running.  Other than a few jaunts down the soccer field I had done zippo running.  I had held on long enough & now was ready to let go and enjoy the ride.  I went back into my normal summer running plan which includes a 6 mile (or longer if I want) course about 5 miles outside of town in the country.  It's far enough removed that it feels like it's out in the boonies and is so serene, peaceful and awesome to run at.  It also includes some killer hills.  I love it!

My foot felt fine during the run.  No major pain, just a slight ache.  We (my running partner Angela joined me today) took it easy and took plenty of walk breaks.  I'm typically a non walker, but I was working to give myself lots of generous slack.  Later once I was at home my foot was hoppin' mad.  Ouch!  Lots of ice and massaging and rolling it out.  I even laid down with the sock on.  Of course I could not find ANY ibuprofen in the house.  I was walking from cabinet to cabinet yelling "where are my drugs?!?!?!"  Later at Wal Mart my youngest said nice & out loud...."mommy, did you get your drugs?  don't forget your drugs mommy".  Ahhhh, kids...you gotta love them!

Last week, school ended and I had a mountain of papers & notebooks to go through that my kids brought home.  I'm not big into saving every paper or project.  It has to be really cute and/or awesome for me to save.  I literally sit next to the trash can and shift through it all and throw 99.9% of it away.  Even then, with 6 kids this stuff adds up.  I came across something my 11 year old son filled out.  It warmed my heart so much, I'd say it's a keeper.  I blocked out most of the other info since it gave details about my son.  This is what he wrote about me and it just warmed my heart and helped fuel my motivation to get back out there.

Now that I have it loaded, I don't know how well you can see it.  Just in case, I will tell you.  It said: My Mother's name is:  Carmen.  My mother's occupations is: running.