Arriving at the light.

Four weeks doesn't seem like a super long time. Twenty eight days. Shortest month of the year. A few weekends, a blur of playdates, gymnastics classes, visits to the park.

It becomes a lot, lot longer, however, when your happy pill is taken away. At first, the diagnosis was the IT band. After nursing it time and time again, though, it was discovered that it was not my IT band at all-- but something was twisted/torn/strained/ouchie in my gluteous region. The good thing was I could jump, squat, climb, and do various other moves (and therefore, exercises) without feeling a hint of pain. As soon as I started to run, though, the movement forward caused the injury to scream at me for mercy.

Very frustrating.

The other day, though, I was at the neighbor's, and my toddler requested that I retrieve his toy lawn mower from our yard. A quick dash across the street, and I was best. Mommy. Ever. But the feeling of being so happy with being able to appease my son so easily could not match the joy of being able to run across the street and back without feeling any pain.

So come Saturday, I felt inspired.

I sent the husband off on his group bike ride, and the nine month old went down for a nap. I put in some P90X (my latest adventure), and after doing my workout, I looked at my toddler.

"Do you want to go running?"

"YEAH!"

So when the nine month old woke up, I took out my running shoes. I asked the toddler,

"What are these?"

"Mommy running shoes."

Okay. It hasn't been THAT long.

Out I went, the two in the stroller, and I sucked wind for four miles. I didn't bring my garmin, because I definitely did not want to push myself too hard and re-injure. Knowing my pace would have made me forget listening to my body-- I'm too competitive to be smart. So I was probably slow. I was definitely feeling it cardiovascular wise (in spite of biking and working out otherwise during the past twenty eight days), but I was out there. Running. Just me and my kids.

I felt like me again.

And it's good to have me back.