Will Run For Ice Cream

I'm not going to lie, there was a little ( ok, maybe more than a little ) fear about getting back on the trail. I know that this probably won't be my last fall ( It Was Bound To Happen ). But just touching my knee hurts, and there are still stitches, so I couldn't imagine how bad it would hurt if I actually fell on it today. But I also knew that I needed to face that fear. So I did. I went out this morning and hiked the exact same route that I fell on last week. I didn't run since this was my first time climbing since my fall, and it still hurts stepping down. There was a lot of wincing, and I stumbled a time or two, but I stayed on my feet. Whew!

It's the reason why a lot of people won't try trail running. Honestly, it was why I didn't try it for a very long time. I'm clumsy and stumble just walking across the floor, I couldn't see myself running trails. But last year after a trying year and burnout, I took to the trail in a last ditch attempt before I gave up running altogether. ( I Ran. I Walked. I Fell. I Bled - It Was Awesome)  And that one run/hike changed a lot of me. I loved it. I truly did. I overcame so much by adding trail running to my routine. So yesterday, after a trying morning, I had just enough time for a 30 minute hike. I didn't really want to run since I had ran 6 road miles on Wednesday. My legs tend to need a day's break from running; so I try not to run back to back. Instead, I took the hillier section of the Appalachian Trail and decided to hike for cross training. I set a timer for 15 minutes as I had planned to walk 15 minutes in, and 15 minutes out. But as I got clo...