A little confession

It’s been just over five weeks since my 15K (click to review my race here) and exactly five weeks since I realized something was wrong with my foot. After taking a full week off from everything to recover and four full weeks of just walking and using the elliptical trainer, I decided it was time to try a short run.

Now don’t worry—I am smart and I know what I can and can’t handle. I’ve been working very hard at keeping my cardio up so I don’t have to start from scratch again, but obviously the foot is what I need to focus on. I walked for 5 minutes to warm up, ran for 10 and walked for 5. I told myself that if at any time while on the treadmill I started to hurt, I would get off immediately.

That 10 minutes of running was awesome. I felt great and I didn’t feel any pain or pressure at all, and it just flew by. Although I wanted to keep going, I stopped myself and then used the elliptical machine for the rest of my cardio session. However, on my way home from the gym I started to feel guilty.

“Should I have done that? What was I thinking? Ugh what if I just aggravated it again? I’ll have no one to blame but myself!”

I came home and iced it for 20 minutes (using frozen peas, mind you) and I will admit, it hurt a little, but I figured the real test would be how I felt today. I feel great. Not enough to go running again, but enough to know that I can slowly start incorporating it back into my workouts.

Training for the Team Challenge 1/2 marathon for Chrons and Colitis starts next month, so I will only allow myself to increase my runs by 10% twice a week. I don’t want to push it, so I figure if I run slow, short runs to start, I can gauge how I feel when the training starts. If I don’t think I can handle it, I’ll pull out and plan to walk the race instead. If I’ve learned anything in this last 5 weeks it’s to appreciate my body for what it can do. If this is a sign that I shouldn’t be running long distances anymore, then so be it, but if I don’t try to slowly get myself back into the game I will never know. Hence the name of the blog, my competitive nature will not let me give up without a fight! (although in my older age I realize I might have to give in much sooner than before. <sigh>)

Also I wanted to comment on this:
A got an email from Active.com yesterday that blew me away. It was a marketing campaign for MGD 64. They’re trying to get people with active lifestyles to promote MGD 64 by showing other fit peeps how they can incorporate it into their active lifestyles. Read about it here.

First of all, if I want to have a beer, I’m going to have a BEER. None of this 64 calorie crap. Give me the good stuff. Since I know how to drink in moderation, one GOOD beer isn’t going to do any damage. This is just promoting crappy low carb/low cal beer so you can drink more of it. If any of you have not read HEAB’s post on refueling, I suggest you check it out. We need to remember that exercising and being healthy is about balance and joy, not about working your ass off so you can eat and drink shit. Plain and simple. What’s the point?