Well, this has been quite a week. I made my goal of three workouts this week but also ended up facing something I was apparently avoiding. I got things started with a 4-mile run on Wednesday with the group. On Friday, I had my first personal training session. That was mostly resistance training, which I’ve finally admitted to myself that I simply won’t do on my own, but I also had him watch my form on the WaterRower. So, I finally had a confident workout on my WaterRower today. I lasted for 20 Minutes.
The unexpected issues emerged on Wednesday afternoon. Basically, I’m working to address some muscle weaknesses and am not supposed to run until I’m cleared. That reality hit me pretty hard because I was reminded of this restriction after mentioning that I was still on a high from that morning’s run. As tempting as it is to be hard-headed and run anyway, I’m committing to not doing so. As I’ve always said, I want to run for the rest of my life, so if taking off for a while will make that even more possible, I will cooperate.
I still have plenty of options: I will now power-walk on Wednesdays during our BGR! meet-up, I will continue to build up on the WaterRower, and I will use the elliptical machine. That’s never been a favorite of mine, but I suspect it might become a go-to. Clearly, I have plenty of ways to keep making progress.
I was so pleased with myself for building up slowly since the New Year. I had given myself plenty of time to take it easy before wanting to begin training on February 16th for my April 26th half marathon. With this no-running mandate, that now feels very different. So, I’m needing to shift my thinking a bit. Despite my declarations to the contrary, I was not starting over on January 1st, and I won’t be starting from “square one” whenever I’m cleared to run again. The journey never ended; it has simply taken several forms. Here’s to making every one of those forms count! After all, I know for sure that moving does a lot of good. It helps my body, my mind, my spirit, and my writing. Let’s vow that we’ll never give that up!
This is such great advice for so many things in life! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
I’m so glad!! Thank you for reading and commenting! The support matters.
Oh Koritha, I so relate. I have not been running since December. The outside of my left knee and my hip have beem bothering me, also because of muscle weakness in legs, glutes, and core, so I am following a cardio and strength training regimen to build up my strength. Plus, I am having abdominal surgery im March, so I will be out from ecercising until about the end of April. I am so craving just putting on my sneakers and going out there, but I am sticking with theneliprical and the spinning bikes and lots and lots of core and legs strength workouts. You are not alone!
Thank you for sharing. Yes, we are really having to learn patience right now. We will get through it together!
I think it’s wonderful that you recognize that shifting your activities in the short term will pay off in the future. I suffered an injury while deployed several years ago that halted my running for over six months. I did not utilize other forms of exercise and instead fell into a period of depression. Then I returned to running too soon and sustained another injury. I’m proud to say I learned my lesson, however, that lesson was learned the hard way because I WAS hard-headed.
I too am enjoying several different forms of moving. Since doing so I have been injury free for the past two years. Like you, I want to run for the rest of my life. Yes Koritha, I agree, moving does a lot of good and I too vow to never give up!
Thank you, Carie. This is a powerful confirmation that I need to be patient. Thank you so much!