Feelin' Good

I've been feeling great the past few days! Sadly, my spring break is coming to an end and it's back to work tomorrow, but I'm craving that routine again. I've had a nice week off with several days to myself, read a couple books, hung out with some friends, got some more Great Strides stuff figured out - overall, it was a nice, relaxing break.

This is the shirt I wear every time I go running because it
gives me the motivation to keep going and Out Run CF!

I also really pushed my running this past week, but more so the past couple days. The route I've been running around my neighborhood is about 2.4 miles and I've always walked and ran it. Yesterday morning I did part of my treatments - my albuterol to loosen my mucus and open my airways - then I went running. I ran (well, jogged) my entire route around my neighborhood without stopping or walking and I think that last few blocks I had a huge grin on my face because I knew I was going to make it! It was so weird because I was breathing great and my legs weren't killing me - it felt so good! When I got back I finished my treatments with my hypertonic saline (HTS) to make me cough up whatever was way down deep in my airways. This morning, I had to do the same thing! I wanted to know if it was just a fluke, or if I could really do it again. And I did! I did the same thing with my treatments, albuterol first, run, and now HTS. This run was much harder on my legs, but I made myself push through it because I knew that if I could do it once, then I could do it again. My plan is to keep running the entire route for a couple more weeks and gradually add in another block at a time until I'm up to 3.1 miles which is the length of a 5K. I've got 68 more days to be comfortably running a 5K and if you would have asked me a week ago if I'd be ready, I would have thought it would have been a close call, but now I'm sure that I'll be able to do it! I never thought I'd be a good runner and I wouldn't consider myself one now, but I'm just so proud of how far I've come since the fall when I started all of this. Go me!