Stopped by an injury...

Staying active is important and in almost everything you read, there is some type of reference to the importance of exercise. It helps you stay healthy, it helps fight off colds, flu, and other illness, it keeps your heart happy, it helps you maintain your weight, it helps you lose weight, it keeps you positive, it relieves stress. But sometimes, the very exercise you do can lead to injury, and when that happens it can be hard to figure out what to do.

I have been on a running kick and recently managed to improve my performance to a level, that for me, is amazing. Breaking an hour in a 10km race was a major accomplishment, and running that same pace for an entire half marathon made me so proud!! However, after my stunning performance in the Okanagan Half Marathon (2:04:44), my heel pain caught up to me. My heel pain had been bothering me for about a month, but it was off and on and always seemed to go away. After the big race however, it was more constant, to the point where I went to the doctor, after some careful research on the internet. It turns out I have plantar fasciitis. It's a common running injury so I wasn't shocked, but I was quite surprised that there are not a lot of very effective ways to treat it. And I was truly dismayed when the doctor told me not to run for at least a month. Running is my outlet. It's what I do to stay in shape and whenever I'm stressed, running makes me feel better. I can sort through my issues on a run and nearly always come back with renewed focus and ideas. But what now that I'm not supposed to run?

There are lots of things you can do when you are sidelined from running. In this case, a high impact sport can be traded for a lower impact sport. I can include cycling classes now, and concentrate on improving my swimming. There are still lots of exercises I can do to increase strength, and stretches that can help with the injury. Rather than lose momentum because my favourite activity has been sidelined, I can embrace these new activities. Perhaps this is God's way of saying it's time to improve at other things. Life is busy and if you only do one thing, then you could be missing out. Because of this injury, I went to my first spinning class in several years. I also took my family swimming. So, when an injury tries to slow you down, work your way around it. I'm also looking for other treatment options like active release. I value my body and plan to use it in many more races, but for the time being, I must respect it, and realize that it's tired of running and needs a chance to heal itself. So I will try and do the best I can to keep active through other avenues...

What happens after the big race...

So, you've spent all this time preparing to run your first 5km or 10km or half marathon or marathon or whatever, and then you completed your race. It felt good. The cheering family and friends. Conquering the self doubt. Telling all the naysayers about how great it felt to cross the finish line. Realizing that you actually accomplished what you set out to do. Knowing that all the training runs you put in ahead of time were worth it because you reached the end. You got your medal, you got your time, you got your tshirt. But now that the race is over, what do you do?

One of the most common feelings is a bit of sadness. Once the goal is achieved and life can return to normal, you miss the training. You miss having something to work towards and this can manifest itself by causing you to feel a bit blue. It's very common so do not fear. Rather, pick a new goal. It doesn't have to be as huge as the first goal, but you should pick something. Usually it's another race. It could be a different distance, either shorter or longer than what you just achieved. Maybe you want to improve your time in a certain distance. Maybe you want to do a run in a cool place. Maybe you want to try a new sport. It doesn't really matter what you do, but it's important that you find something else to work on so that you don't fall off the exercise bandwagon all together.

It's easy to think you'll keep on exercising just because you can and because it's what you've been doing. The truth however, seems to be, that without a goal to work towards, it can be so much easier to just skip a workout. After all, it's not like you have a goal you need to reach, right? By signing up for another race, you are more likely to continue on with your workouts and put meaning into them.

So, after the big race. Celebrate your accomplishment. Show off your new bling. Take a few rest days to recover. And then, find something else to set your sights on... you'll be glad you did!!

Less than a week...

Time goes by so fast these days. Training has been going pretty good. September has been busy but we have still managed to get most of the workouts in. I can't believe though that next week at this time I will be done the half marathon. It seems so long ago that we signed up for it. And, already I am looking for new races and things to get excited about and I have found something. More about that another day though. For now, I will focus on the race I'm about to run, in BC next Sunday...