An injury

Well friends it's been a week since my last post. I have not been blogging because i have not been jogging. And i have not been jogging because i am experiencing my very first running related injury.
Yep, my foot has staged a peaceful protest against all this exercising. It has been hurting so much that i even mentioned it to my doctor who probed it a bit with her finger then suggested going to a physio. I suggested she read my file, namely the part where it says i am a (poor) full time student. So anti-inflammatory gel it is for the next week.
In other news, my bike pedal fell off on my way to work last week so it's been driving and walking for me this week. I think the universe is trying to tell me something...

Walkabout

Today's run was hard which is very annoying considering last time i ran it felt so good. This morning i felt like i was running through water-I was all headachy and stiff.
I have put this down to several contributing factors:
1. I ate too much chocolate last night, hence the headache.
2. I worked six days in a row, today being my one day off.
3. Classes started back this week.
4. I have not run in 7 days.
5. I ran too quickly at the start because i wanted to beat my distance from last time.
See how these things tie into each other? I work too much, get tired, eat chocolate, hurry into school, wake up and try to go for a run in the tiny pocket of free time i have left myself. Silly me.
I didn't quite finish the final running component of the program but i did walk a little bit extra just to make up for it. I also ran into two neighbours; I had a great conversation with one-his wife is doing her honors in creative writing and she is basically my model for the good life (creative job, chickens in the back yard, beautiful studio with polished floor boards and sketches on the walls.) My other neighbour suggested i plant some trees in front of my bedroom window for "privacy." I think i should be paying attention to that considering he has been saying the same thing for a year. My husband has a terrible habit of opening all the blinds in the house just as i am getting out of the shower....
So i covered around 4k's this morning. Better than nothing!!

Different Types of Running

I have not run since Thursday so i thought i'd take this opportunity to talk about another type of running.

I ran into an ex boyfriend yesterday. I had not seen him in at least 6 years and considering he lives in a different state he was totally off my radar. It was quite shocking to see his face on My Territory (which is of course his territory because obviously we spent a few years establishing territories with one another and forgot to divide them up when we broke up.) You see this boy was my first real love. I was crazy about him for a number of years and we always managed to break up, make up, intertwine ourselves in each others worlds and generally cause chaos in each others hearts.

In the intervening years since then and now, i spent a long time running away from him. From that crazy love that bound two unsuitable people to each other. From the pain of walking away so many times, and seeing his back turned more than once. From the person i was when i was with him (think bong smoking, unmotivated, messy haired ratbag) and from the mistakes i made in the name of immaturity and desire.

Somewhere down the line though, i stopped running away and made friends with myself (and my mistakes.) Slowly i stopped looking over my shoulder and started looking towards the horizon instead. I can't remember when this transition started or even if i had a clear idea of what i was running towards, but last night as i introduced my husband to my ex boyfriend, i realised that i am where i was always heading. I am the person i always had a suspicion i could be.

This leads me to believe that maybe you don't need to know where you are going in order to get there. Maybe you just need to keep moving and looking ahead. And have faith that you are already on your way to where you are supposed to be. Even when you are moving away from something, you are inevitably moving closer to something else.

happy monday.
x

Things Most People Have Known Forever But That I Am Only Just Learning.

You know how you can go through your life knowing things without ever really knowing them? For example, we all know that we will eventually turn into our mothers. We joke about it, tease our sisters about it, even warn our partners about it. And then one day we realise with earth shattering clarity, we will one day eventually turn into our mothers.

I feel like jogging is giving me some wake up calls to thoughts which have been waiting patiently in the corners of my mind.

Revelation one:
Life is all about choices. Big, small, medium. Some are the size of a cadbury cream egg, other are the size of the alarm clock going off at 6am. I have chosen to be lazy in the past. i have chosen to put on weight and eat terribly. The time has come to ask myself the question: You want to be fit and you also want to eat chocolate for breakfast. Which one do you want more? Because it is a choice and i'm the only one that gets to choose.

Revelation two:
My biggest battle is again my little old brain. Such a cliche but i can talk myself into or out off anything in the world. My inner voice is so loud sometimes that i actually cannot hear what other people are saying. When it is saying "you? a runner...i don't think so my friend..." my body feels stiff and weak and i give up. When it is saying "just shoosh up and run for gods sake" I'm sprinting along like nobody's business.

Revelation three:
Those numbers on the scale are bollocks. Seriously, i weigh more than i have ever in my life yet i am much more active now and certainly eating better than i did when i weighed 50kg. And i respect my body about 1.7 billion times more too. And probably look better in a bikini.

Now i swore at the start of this journey that i wouldn't go all "running is a way of life" on you. But it's not the running that is changing me, it's the changing me that is running.
xxxx

Back on the horse

I completed my first post-holiday jog this morning. And when i say this morning, i really mean when i finally woke up which may or may not have been the afternoon.
I STRUGGLED through the first ten minutes or so and dragged my feet in time with Avril. But then something strange happened-it stopped being so hard. i feel like this is the first break through and that my body knew how to move without me having to push it every step of the way. While i wouldn't say it was easy, it was definitely less hard.
Famous last words.

Some of my best friends are fruit and vegetables.

I would consider myself an open minded person. Liberal infact. I don't like to have prejudices against anything. But unfortunately there is one group that i object to on a whole: Fruit and vegetables.
Okay, i may be exaggerating. For example, i quite like summer fruits and a decorative slice of orange on the side of my cocktail. Apples are reasonable and carrots do not offend me. But that is about it. Tomatoes are orbs of juicy evil and broccoli and cauliflower remind me of unattractive twins. Capsicum? gross. And lettuce? don't even get me started on lettuce....

Home again, home again, jiggerty jig.

well hello stranger.

My holiday was fab-u-lous. Filled with ridiculous amounts of sunshine, singapore slings and swimming. I read 4 books and have discovered a new favourite in Everything is Illuminated which happens to be the best book in the world. If you have not read it, read it now. If you have read it, why didn't you tell me about it? Seriously...i thought we were friends.
Anyway, i am avoiding the unavoidable. i have a confession to make. i have fallen well and truly off the wagon. i ran a grand total of once in the entire two weeks. In my defence, it was really hot and we stayed at this resort which was more conducive to breakfasts in bed and lazy evening strolls rather than alarm clocks and chaff. i am only human after all. Oh my god, i have to tell you this one thing, they had these little flags that said "hungry and thirsty" that you waved from your sun lounger by the pool so you didn't even have to stand up. My one victory over my holiday wagon-falling was the fact that i never used my flag. Oh no, i walked the whole three feet to the pool edge and doggy paddled to the pool bar thank you very much.
So while i am not quite starting from square one i am going back to square two of the program. And i have revised my completion day for mid april which happens to be the day i turn twenty freaking nine. I'm going to run every second day so i have no room for the sneaky "i'll just run three days in a row at the end of the week" thoughts intruding on my otherwise iron clad resolve.
Signing off, from the wagon. which i happen to be back on. with a seat belt this time, and really well behaved horses. x