Guys. It has officially been five months since I received the diagnosis that I had little cracks trying to form in my L5 vertebrae. FIVE MONTHS. In that time, I have learned more about respecting your limits, listening to your body, patience (barf), and perseverance than I realized my little walnut goblin brain was capable of. I discovered that it's possible to be excited at the possibility of being allowed to run two miles at 8:30 pace under extreme supervision on a treadmill if it means you're able to run again. When all is said and done, I am grateful beyond words for Margaret and Gerald (Okay, so I named the pedicles of my L5 vertebrae, so what? I had a lot of time on my hands. Too much time, probably.) giving out on me, because this experience gave me back the joy and love for running that I felt I was losing my grip of. Every day that I'm allowed to run now, regardless of how tired I am or how much easier it would be to stay in bed and watch Grey's Anatomy, I am endlessly happy for. I have done four workouts now (!!!) and each time I'm allowed to run another interval, I feel as though I've won the lottery. It's weird. If I was someone else observing, I wouldn't trust me. No one should be that excited about running a 400m interval, yet there I am.
Even more exciting than the fact that I'm working out again...I'm RACING again! (!!!!!!) USU hosted their only home meet of the year this last weekend, and The Man himself, Artie Gulden, cleared me to race it. What's more, he really spoiled me and let me run 5:25 pace. It felt bizarre racing again. The last time I raced was at cross country nationals, and my withered asthmatic lungs weren't 100% convinced they would remember what to do. Fortunately for my psyche, Nicki Minaj dropped a new song for me to listen to pre-race, otherwise I could've been in some real trouble. I'm extremely glad my first race back was at my home track, because it allowed me to compete with the support of my teammates, friends, and family. All in all, it was a v solid first race post-injury. The first 2.6 miles felt like I had never left. It's amazing how quickly your body remembers how to settle back in and tempo. The last eight hundred meters were a little rough. Here's how the conversation went between my lungs and my brain when I tried to pick up the pace:
Lungs: Hey, you remember the last time you did a workout that would justify you trying to run at this pace?
Brain: Yeah lungs! It was just this last Tuesday! And it was so fun!
Lungs: Okay but when was the last time before that?
Brain: ...Before nationals?
Lungs: Yep. You and legs are being pretty rude right now and you know it.
Then my lungs bailed on the operation without permission from brain and legs, which was inconsiderate, but I'm not bitter about it. With altitude conversion, I actually ran a PR for the open 5k, which is pretty embarrassing for Past Lyssa. (I've run faster 5ks back to back in the 10k than I have in the open, don't @ me.)
I'll be racing the 5k next weekend as well at BYU's Robison Invitational, after which my coaches and I will be making a decision and I may or may not have an exciting announcement. Stay tuned.
