Strap yourself in for a long ride...I wrote a lot!

I'm feeling slightly inspired as I write this blog and I hope to inspire everyone who reads it.

I've recently started exercising every day or almost every day, which has been fantastic. I did a lot of exercise before, but I would take days off in the middle of the week sometimes. This week has been pretty good. Sunday I decided would be an off day. Monday I ran 4km and biked 3km (I think-I wrote about it but I forget how far I went), Tuesday I swam somewhere around 400-500m, Wednesday I biked 6.5km then ran 3km, Thursday I swam the same distance and today I biked 10.5km. Every day that I do those exercises, I also do a gym workout (I have 2 different workout "routines" that I do-weights, ab stuff, extensions of all sorts...and so on. I won't bore you with details! lol Everything has been going well and I haven't been having any knee troubles.

I have realized throughout my exercising, that it makes me feel good...all the endorphins or whatever that get released through exercise certainly make me feel 100%. It also doesn't hurt that when I do all this and eat properly, it makes me in good shape and makes me feel like I look good. It is generally good for most people to exercise to live a long, healthy life. But, I also have another reason why I do it. I don't often think of this reason until something or someone comes along that makes me think about what my life could be.

Every day people get sick. It isn't news to anyone that all over the world, every day, people die. For many reasons. Some preventable, some not. It's very sad in my opinion but it's the circle of life. It will happen to everyone. Death and taxes, right? So. What is my other reason? Because I can. I was born with both legs, both arms and a fully functioning body. I was born with the ability to do anything I wanted. From the get go, I was given the opportunity to be and do anything I wanted. A fresh start. That is not the case for all. Some people are born with missing limbs or sickness. Diseases that have no cure or cures that make you incapable of doing anything but lie in a bed. I am not one of those people.

I am very lucky. The way I look at it, I have no excuse not to keep my body in the best shape I can. I was given (however you want to interpret that) a chance to live a full life and I want to live that life the best I can. I push my body to it's limits because I know it will make me stronger. I am tired of hearing people complain about things that are just excuses not to do anything and to be lazy. I certainly don't expect everyone to do what I do but I do expect people to do what they can. You know, I don't mind the Eminem song "Lose Yourself." He says some inspirational things in his song and from what I have heard of him, it seems he overcame a lot of obstacles in his life to fulfill a dream he had. People do that all the time. They ignore what people say they can or can't do and do what they want to do. They push past obstacles and keep focused on the dream to accomplish something meaningful to themselves (and maybe not even to anyone else).

The true heroes in my books are those who don't let situations or circumstances determine their dreams. I may have mentioned him before, but there is a man and his son, Dick and Rick Hoyt, who I learned about over the last few months. Look them up on youtube and listen to the story. Even if you are not interested in an ironman race, I think you'll be inspired by the obstacles that they both overcome. It gives perspective. Yes, my knee injury is incredibly frustrating because it made me incapable of doing something I love for a time, but it's not nearly what others have had to overcome.

I could go on for hours, but I'll spare you. I am inspired today to live my life to the fullest for as long as I have. That's a hard thing to maintain every day, for sure, but I'm going to try. I don't know when I'll die or even if I have some underlying sickness in my body creeping it's way through me. I just know that today I'm here. Today I will run. I will keep running until my legs stop working. It is my passion. I'm not going to make excuses.

At the risk of offending people with what I say, I'm going to keep going. Stop being lazy and get out and do what you need to do. Stop letting fear or excuses hold you back from what you should be doing. I'm not telling you to run. I'm saying that I'm tired of people complaining about this or that, "oh I can't do that because...(insert lame excuse here)." You can so do it. You can face your fear. You can meet your goal. You can do anything you put your mind to. Yes sometimes situations beyond your control happen, but you can't let the fear of those situations hold you back. Overcome the obstacles that come and move on. I was terrified in the water during the triathlon I did. The first attempt at it, I had to be rescued out of the water. But, I tried. The second attempt a few weeks later was a success. When I got in the water, I stood in the beach area staring out towards the first marker, debating whether I should swim or turn around, uncertain as to whether or not I would have to be rescued again or worse, drown. Then and there I made a choice to swim. And I made it. I want to continually make the choice to swim.

I will meet my goal. I will run a marathon.

Better and Better

Hey everyone! A quick update with good news! I ran a 4km on Friday and had no problems at all! Nothing hurt! I also ran 4km on Monday and had no problems, again! So, things are looking up. I'm going for a short run tonight and planning a 12km on Saturday, but we'll see how things go.
All in all, things are definitely improving. I've been having what I needed. No pain during the run or after. I also went biking shortly after my run on Monday and other than a little tightness, I was feeling good. I'm trying to get used to doing 2 sports at the same time again, in preparation for dualthons or triathlons.
As always, we'll see.

1 2 3 4 5 6 switch!

Sorry everyone! I haven't been very good with this blogging thing lately!!

So on Thursday I tried a 4km run after having such a good run earlier in the week. Unfortunately this one didn't work out as well. For some reason that I will probably never understand, my right knee ended up super sore, the same way the other one was. My left knee was fine. So, since I'd thought I would be ok, I did it on a day I had to work. It was not fun working that evening. Not as bad as the time I went in after running like 20km, but still not nice. So, I rested my knees AGAIN and went swimming and biking. A funny thing was that when I got back there was a Canada Goose on the tip of our roof and one in front of our driveway. I ran in to try to get a picture but a weedman truck scared them off. I swear the geese are taking over our neighbourhood. There was one on my neighbour's roof too.

Today I went out hoping for a longer run. I'm sick of these wimpy runs (they are wimpy for me, not for everyone, don't get me wrong). I woke up with a sore right knee and thought I might only make it 2km. I never understand this injury thing. I think maybe my knee was sore because I was playing the drums and really trying to get this one beat that requires a lot of the bass drum. But I also could have slept wrong. It drives me crazy that big parts of being able to run properly can be on things out of my control.

Anyway, so I went out aiming for 8km but would be happy with only a few km. I went 4km out and felt ok. I could tell I had been having trouble with the knee but overall it was fine. So, when I got back to my house I ran 2 extra km because I felt fine. So I ended up surviving a 10km. In theory I should be able to do 22km still because it hasn't been that long since I last did it and I probably won't lose my distance that easily. So, again I will try building up and see how it goes. If I end up able to do this marathon it won't be without considerable training and ups and downs.

So, until next time....keep fit and have fun!

On the road again

Things are looking good here. I decided to try a longer run (not like my real longer ones, but longer than 2km) on Monday. I went out intending to do a 5km if I could make it. I made sure to keep close to the house. I ran almost 2.5km out and was starting to feel some knee pain so I turned around. It was slight and ended up disappearing for awhile so I decided that if I felt ok when I was almost back to my house, I'd try for 6km. So, I felt fine and finished 6km. I was not sore at all after or for the rest of the day. It felt good to run again. It's totally an addiction of mine.
So, things are looking better and better. I'm not really feeling sore anymore at all. I did some extra swimming, biking and workouts focusing on abs and I think these workouts combined with better eating (as I sit here eating chocolate covered raisins, lol) and rest have helped get me back into longer-ish runs. If I am able to get back to 10km by the end of the month, I should be able to do the full marathon.
As always....time will tell.

2.5km and counting....

Despite the crappy weather out today, I thought I'd try to run after being off for a week. I was surprised that I was able to make it to 1km without pain. Really good news. So, I went 2.5km (didn't want to push it-I have to work later today and I stand the whole shift) and survived. I found that my knee/leg was sore after but nothing like the other day. So, I know I can run at least 2.5km. It's not the 22km I did a few weeks ago, but it's a step. I'm learning IT Band strengthening exercises and stretches and I'm going to throw in some runner's knee ones too because that's something that has bothered me in the past too. If anyone reading this is thinking of running, I would suggest learning stuff like that BEFORE you try it, lol. I think that was one mistake I made in the last 5 months-not doing those stretches, knowing that I am prone to this type of injury. I also realized I let my protein consumption slip (lazy, didn't feel like making food...lol) so I'm concentrating more on that. Little things that I hadn't thought of have had big impacts!
Anyway, so it's good news for now!

Birthday disaster

Well it's about time I update! So, on Thursday, my birthday, I got all ready for a long run. I was planning on doing 20km or more if I felt ok. If I had been sticking to my plan I would have been at 26km but that wasn't realistic after being sidelined from an injury for a bit.

So, I start my run, feeling good...going...going...going...a little bit of soreness in my right knee but ok....going...going...going....for an hour...10km away from my house, then the unthinkable happens. My knee starts hurting. At first not too much but I thought it best to turn around. I ran 1km down the road (on bad uneven dirt road unfortunately) and it didn't let up. It was my left leg, not even the one that was hurting a bit on the way out. When I say knee, I don't mean knee though...it was the IT band. The bad thing. The thing that stops my running almost immediately and puts me back to the beginning. So, I stopped and walked. Felt a bit better. Started to run...immediate pain. No good.

So, as I was 10km and an away running from my house, I became so angry. There was absolutely no warning of this in the first 10km. Usually there is something. But no. So, I walked the 10km back to my house since I had no money, no phone, no way of getting back to my house otherwise. Unfortunately, my knee still hurt when I was walking. It took me almost 2 hours to get home and it hurt the whole time. Sad but true. I wondered when I'd be able to run again and felt that my legs might as well be broken.

The next 3 days after were very unpleasant. I was in pain a lot and once in awhile I'd move my leg the wrong way and it would be like electricity through my leg. It still hurts. This is familiar from other years. Fortunately I don't work very much and was off for almost 4 full days after the run. I haven't run since and just yesterday tried a swim. It went ok and so today I did a 4.5km bike ride which irritated it a bit, but it's a good workout for me since I can't run right now. I've still been doing my regular workouts. I have 2 different workout plans that I do after a run or after a swim, isolating different parts (abs or arms usually). I'm going to try running again on Thursday or Friday but this is a huge blow.

So, it's back to the beginning for me. At this point I'm not sure if the marathon is a possibility anymore. I have 5 months left and a long way to go if I have to start at the beginning. It took me 5 months to get to halfway. So depending on where I can start again, I may or may not be doing my marathon. It's a shame when you've come this far, done everything right and because of one stupid mistake (the 5km race) that I didn't even think about, I may miss out on what I've been planning since December. There's always the half I suppose. Right now, I'll just be happy to be able to run again.