Get Out The Door…

So January is in full swing as you well know. I don’t know about you but I am not much of a New Years resolution setter, but I do have some goals set for this year and one of them involves running. With all of the ups and downs of surgeries this past year I find myself once again in a position of completely starting over with the whole running thing. I am no longer in a place in life where I can take several months off and then just get up and run three miles. I have to begin with walking … a lot of walking. Then after a few weeks of this I can begin a walk to run program and SLOWLY  begin to build my mileage back up.

I am in the walking phase right now and I was thinking that maybe some of you might be starting over again as well and if so then we can begin again together. Mentally I like to have walked 3 miles 3 or 4 times a week for several weeks before I begin any walk to run program. Right now I am ending my second week of 3 mile walks. When I ran my half marathon last year I used this great walk to run app on my phone that told me exactly what I needed to be doing and when. I started with working up to a 5k (3.2 miles) and once I was comfortable running 3 miles several times a week I began the 1/2 Marathon training program. The only problem with this app now is that they went up from $5 per year to $10 per year. Which isn’t a big deal except for the fact that I feel like I am being nickel and dimed everywhere and I didn’t want to add one more thing to the list. So I downloaded Runkeeper. So far I like it. I am using the free version and it tells me how far I have gone on each walk and has different voice options to tell you how far you  have gone. I chose the military voice and he keeps telling me that I am the, “best maggot on the block.”

After next week I will begin the walk to run training plan and see how that goes. My end all goal for this year is a full marathon in October. I’d like to do the Eugene 1/2 again in May but I’m not so sure I will be ready by then. Time will tell. I build up so slowly not because of lack of drive or ambition but because I have been sidelined soo many times in my running history with calf and shin pain. I find that if I am super careful then I avoid these issues.

Last year when I was training I posted pics of myself at the end of each milestone run on Instagram. This year I have begun doing short little video clips. I do it because it motivates me to keep going and it gives me something tangible to look at to see how far I have come. I miss my long runs up the slough from last spring and am excited to get back to where I was and to push beyond what I have ever thought possible for me.

None of this is easy, it’s freezing cold here and walking in the freezing cold or in the rain is sooo not the same as running. I have even had to go to the mall to walk a few times this week because the down pour was so heavy and being cold and wet didn’t sound like so much fun. Also there is the reality that my body is just plain broken. Sure it’s been patched back together but once broken no matter how much patching you do it’s never the same. Most of us at this stage of life are in the same boat as no one gets to this stage of life unscathed. I mention it only so that you will know for all the smiles in the photos and fun videos that I put out there, there is always a back story of something that has to have been overcome to get me to the point of getting out the door.

Just yesterday my incision from December’s surgery was red and painful again. We live 2.5 hours from my Dr. so in order for him to see what is going on I have to send him pictures. Well, I couldn’t get a good enough photo of it myself so I went to our office and here we were, Mr. Wonderful and I, in the back room of our office, my shirt is up and he is on his knees taking photos of my breast to then text to the Dr. I am begging him not to get my face in the photos and praying that one of the girls that works with us does not come around the corner in that moment. Fun times! Once we sent the the photos the Dr. asked me to to come in. So I drove to the 2.5 hours to Eugene for him to tell me that we will keep monitoring it, I went to the grocery store and then drove the 2.5 hours back home.

I say all of this because getting out the door and doing something that makes me feel normal helps me get through those days that are not even close to normal. So, get out the door. Even if it’s just down the street and back. We all have to start somewhere and sometimes we have to start again and again and again. But if you never start you will never know what you could have accomplished.

Have a great day my friends!

 

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