Finally Running

I don't particularly love running, but I do love that, as far as being a mechanism for exercise, it just requires clothes and shoes. It is about as simple as possible.

When I moved into this mountainous neighborhood I had to get used to running uphill. Eventually I started running downhill as well. After a while I started getting intermittent and then persistent pain around my heel on one foot. A friend told me it sounded like plantar fasciitis.

This week, while I was out at the park with my kids, it occurred to me that my heel didn't hurt any longer. After months of persistent pain every time I stood up after a prolonged period of sitting, that the pain was completely gone. That's cool.

With some reasonably warm mid-Winter weather, I've been taking the kids to the park in the afternoons. Dinner each evening goes waaaaay better if the kids get to spend a couple hours running around the park. Anyway. There's a gravel track outlining this one particular park which I've been walking. This most recent trip to the park, I decided to warm up by walking a few laps and then switch between running and walking. No pain. How amazing. I decided not to go crazy though so as not to risk re-injury.

Anyway, this is awesome, and I'm going to slowly start re-introducing running to my outdoor activities, but I'll probably refrain from any downhill running until I can figure out how to do that without injury.