Getting My Running Game Back

Oh hello there blog. I have been busy but hopefully I am on my way back.

Let’s talk running.

About a year ago, give or take, I was biking to work when I was struck by a vehicle. Fun. He took off and physically it left me with rheumatoid arthritis in the ankle I landed on, and in an air cast for about 6 weeks. I attempted to run after a reasonable time out of the cast but for the next 6 months I still had lingering pain, most likely from the RA, in that ankle.

So no marathon in 2015 for me. Actually no running races at all and at one point I was sadly debating if my running days were over.

Somewhere along the way my ankle started feeling better… then almost normal. I ran once or twice and would have stiffness the next few days but it was progress.

About a month or more ago I decided to take my ankle for a serious test. I went from no miles / no days to about 3 – 4 miles 2 or 3 times in a week. I just pulled that bandage right off and went back into it! 

The first few days it was a little stiff and then, … nothing. What? 🙂

I did this for a good couple of weeks and decided that it was good … that I could do this … and that maybe I just need to keep running.

I pulled the trigger and signed up for marathon #3, which will be in April 2016.

My goal is this … run 2 – 3 days a week with at least one day having 6 miles (I am already doing this now) between now and the end of the year. Work on strength and getting my pace back. Then, in January switch to a marathon training plan. … and keep going.

I am worried that if I stop now I could risk losing this normal feeling ankle so I am using that as momentum to just … keep .. running!

So, we will see how things go… if the rheumatoid flares up or if things are good.

I am excited to have a little more normal but also equally cautious that this could be a decision that I need to keep monitoring.

The goal is to keep progressing and not get obsessive, which I like to do. It has been hard to limit running to 3 or 4 days but I have so many other moving parts to my life that I really don’t have time for more right now.

I will report back later.

Thanks for reading!
Christina

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Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

This is a topic that I am not so good with, in some cases .. comfort zone.

When it comes to fitness I am ok with pushing myself way outside of my comfort zone because I walk in with that confidence that I can successfully do so. Other things .. not so much.

Why should we not step outside of our comfort zone?

There are quite  few unknowns with it. It’s a leap of faith and sometimes the result is not what we expected or wanted.

Why should we step outside of our comfort zone?

The result may change who we are as a person for the better. Maybe we get stronger, have better perspective, learn invaluable lessons from it, or gain a new level of personal confidence.

We all started out at one ‘level’ in life and by taking chances we have gotten to where we are now. The only way we can improve upon our ‘today’ self is to roll the dice and see what happens. If we are stronger enough on the inside then we are capable of getting uncomfortable.

Happy day and thanks for reading!

I have tons of playlists on Spotify, by BPMs, by moves (i.e. seated flats, standing climbs, etc). Feel free to follow me as I am constantly adding to my playlists 🙂

Christina

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter

Learning to Have Filters, Sometimes …

There is that common joke out there about the husband and the wife. The wife is sitting there, complaining about this, complaining and that, and so on to the husband. He’s sitting there as if he’s listening to her. She asks him a question and his mind is blank. He was filtering her out. Now she’s even madder and starting over .. 🙂

Maybe that is not the type of filtering that I am referring to .. completely .. but sometimes it is worthwhile to have a few filters on.

I believe that every day we wake up and make a series of choices on how we choose to live and feel about our day. Even though we make choices there may be a series of unexpected obstacles that get in our way.

These obstacles may be from yourself, a parent, a spouse, money, school, or something else altogether.

While we definitely don’t want to ‘ignore’ that issues I think it’s important to not let them burden us more than they have to at one time. Sometimes we can only shoulder so much at once so that we can take it in, manage it, and correct it (if that’s an option). They we can handle more.

We should deal with obstacles in life by filtering them in .. in reasonable quantities. Break them into smaller, manageable pieces.

Happy day and thanks for reading!

I have tons of playlists on Spotify, by BPMs, by moves (i.e. seated flats, standing climbs, etc). Feel free to follow me as I am constantly adding to my playlists 🙂

Christina

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter

Holding Yourself Accountable

This is one of those topics that people either love, or hate.

Holding ourselves accountable, holding ourselves to standards.

Why should we? Well, I suspect that the opinion varies but these are at least my thoughts on the subject. I / We deserve to have standards and expectations for what I do, how I act, what decisions I make, etc.

This keeps us strong, physically, mentally, morally, and so on.

It doesn’t have to be a 24 / 7 fight or effort but we need to stand our ground often enough that the end result works in our favor.

I like to think of it like this .. make one better decision at a time. Focus on each decision and less about the ‘big picture.’ If you do that often enough then one day you will look up and see that you’ve made progress without it feeling overwhelming!

At the same time, when things don’t go our way it’s important to be a realist and take responsibility for our ‘share in it.’ No, that doughnut did not force it’s way into our mouth .. and no one made you super size those fries. We have to ‘own it’ then figure out what it will take to not repeat it again.

Here is the deal… we are human and unfortunately not perfect. We’re going to make mistakes .. again and again. When it happens .. well, there is no point in beating ourselves up something that is now in the past. So, instead pick yourself up, dust the dirt off, and get back on track.

So .. our plan is this .. try to stay on track more often than not. Try to limit those detours but still forgive ourselves when they happen. Own up to what happened to cause them, decide how to avoid them again, and move on 🙂

Happy day and thanks for reading!

I have tons of playlists on Spotify, by BPMs, by moves (i.e. seated flats, standing climbs, etc). Feel free to follow me as I am constantly adding to my playlists 🙂

Christina

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter