On Running and Fitness

Several of you have emailed me to ask how my running regime has been going. I started c25k in June 2010. Way back in 2010! I made it to one week shy of graduation (I chose the distance goal versus time so for me graduation= running a 5k) and it took me something like 12 weeks to get there. I felt so good about my progress and about myself. And then...when I was so close...I let life get in the way. I lost my job (govt contract rebid lost by my employer), got depressed/anxious about that and stopped running consistently which kept setting back my progress. THEN I landed a job and was super busy learning the paces of the new environment and used that as an excuse to not run consistently. THEN in the winter my elderly parents fell ill, Dad came to live with us, was very sick and eventually died in March of 2011. Between the stress and grief my running was sporadic at best.

I was determined to start running again in March after his death but something just wouldn't snap into place- I was in a really sad place over my Dad's death. I signed up for a half marathon to force myself to train (I needed a goal!) but it didn't motivate me much. I made it back to only w5 by the time of the half marathon. I didn't back out of the race - noooo I stuck with it and ran/walked the whole 13.1 miles. I felt great! Crossing that finish line with the support of family (my husband and brother-in-law both ran in the race) was amazing! I wished I had trained more and in the moment of the finish line I was so excited that I committed to disciplined training once I finished the race so that I could run- and i mean fully run- the next half marathon that comes my way one day (Disney princess?). Sadly, a few hours after the race my body began to scream in pain - turns out I ended up with peroneal tendonitis from pushing my body beyond what it had trained to do. Ugh. It meant no running (not even a lot of walking) for SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS.

So October rolls around and I finally was able to start running again. And now I am once again making progress with couch to 5k(Dr said after I was allowed to start back running I must start all over from w1d1). I just finished w3d3. My husband who started C25k around the time i did in 2010 is now regularly running half marathons and logging over 41 miles a week. So I know it's possible if i just keep at it!!

I really wanted to post here for 2 reasons:

1. to encourage myself to keep going
2. to encourage you to keep going no matter how many stops and starts you've had

TL;DR: running is hard, but even with a ton of stops and starts and seemingly failures DON'T GIVE UP, YOU CAN (we can!!!) DO IT!

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