First post-hospital run

[I wrote this last week, and added to it today]

I finally did it. I went for another run Tuesday (11/28). The first one since having my heart shocked back into rhythm on 11/15 (cardioversion).

I was supposed to wait at least a week before taking up exercise again. Of course then it was the week of Thanksgiving and whatnot. So I waited two weeks to the day from my last run. Which happened to be the day I went to ER and was later admitted to the hospital for AFib.

I'd been trying to walk as much as I could, so it wasn't like I was totally out of shape. Still, I was nervous as a cat about getting my heart rate pumping again. What if it didn't come back down??? And just let me add, I hate wearing a dang heart-rate-monitoring watch! I can't keep myself from checking it constantly to make sure I'm "okay," and if it's the least bit elevated I start to panic. Ugh. It ain't easy being me, you know. ;)

It didn't help that the temp was 23F with a "feels like" of 10. At least it was sunny. So, after procrastinating all morning, I finally suited up in winter running gear and took a deep breath.

I decided to walk/jog in half-mile increments. So I walked a half, jogged a half, and ended up with 4.5 miles total (2 miles jogging about a 10-minute pace and 2.5 miles walking). It felt good to get out on the greenway again, and to know I could still do this. Though I was still nervously checking my heart rhythm the entire rest of the night!

We actually had started going back to the Y this morning too, so I'd already lifted weights on egym and walked a mile on the treadmill. Hopefully we can get back in a routine of 3 mornings a week at the Y, and me running 4 days a week. I'm hoping to do a Spring marathon and the training for that would begin Christmas day. I will need to be able to run 8 miles at the end of that week, so I'll just run between 2-5 per day for now. We'll see.

There is probably going to be a lot of "we'll see" from here on out, I'm guessing. I'm going to need to learn to hold things lighter and go-with-the-flow more since it's likely the AFib will return at some point. It would probably be a good idea to do that anyway, eh? Life really is precious. I should enjoy it more.

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ADDED TODAY: I have slowly added to my run mileage-at-a-time. This past Saturday I did two miles without stopping and then added another mile after a brief walk. Yesterday I did 2.5 miles on the treadmill after lifting weights. Today I did 5 miles on the treadmill at 5.3 mph without stopping. I'm not setting any land speed records, and I hate running on a treadmill anymore, but it feels good to be running again and not worrying about it. Also, I was able to remove the stick-on heart rate monitor yesterday (which was a real pain to get off), and I almost feel like a normal person again (as much as I've ever felt 'normal' anyway). So, maybe there's hope for me yet...