Mustering My Catch-up--Hot Dog!
That I haven't posted in a while doesn't mean I haven't been working at getting back to running. I have!
In the month and two days since my last post I have progressed from walking a minute/jogging a minute to walking a minute/almost running three or more minutes. It's been slow progress, but I've focused on paying attention to pain when it starts and then backing off, that is, walking and stretching, until the pain subsides.
I've also been religious about stretching and doing strengthening exercises, recognizing that this last return to the DL was largely precipitated by my slacking off on the stretch-and-strength component of staying active.
Last but not least, I've found a wonderful sports chiropractor in LA (where I am still living these days) who is skilled in ART and is also infectiously upbeat about exercise and about life in general. I told her I have run nine marathons since the month before my 50th birthday and would like to make it ten--her response was, "We can get you to ten!" I am skeptical as to the reliability of that projection, but am at least now believing that I'll be able to complete the ORF Half in March.
My optimism regarding the half is partly based on the run/walk I did this very morning. My son with whom I'm currently staying and I have a joke about "things you don't tell your mother about" (for him) and "things you don't tell your grown son about" (for me). My outing this morning falls in the latter category. What I did? Ran/walked from Westwood to Culver City. Along a major street, over a huge freeway, in the dark and foggy pre-dawn hours. My total mileage came to eight. Only five more until I can say I'm ready for the half!
I find that I need to push myself, even to the point of doing slightly stupid things, in order to feed my courage. How else am I to not feel like a non-functional, decrepit old lady? I just try to keep the challenges I set at the "slightly" stupid level, as opposed to the "completely." Timidity is not for the active. And I intend to stay among the active for as long as I'm breathing.
In the month and two days since my last post I have progressed from walking a minute/jogging a minute to walking a minute/almost running three or more minutes. It's been slow progress, but I've focused on paying attention to pain when it starts and then backing off, that is, walking and stretching, until the pain subsides.
I've also been religious about stretching and doing strengthening exercises, recognizing that this last return to the DL was largely precipitated by my slacking off on the stretch-and-strength component of staying active.
Last but not least, I've found a wonderful sports chiropractor in LA (where I am still living these days) who is skilled in ART and is also infectiously upbeat about exercise and about life in general. I told her I have run nine marathons since the month before my 50th birthday and would like to make it ten--her response was, "We can get you to ten!" I am skeptical as to the reliability of that projection, but am at least now believing that I'll be able to complete the ORF Half in March.
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| Proof that I was in Culver this morning. Proof that it was darker than a coal miner's belt buckle at midnight. |
My optimism regarding the half is partly based on the run/walk I did this very morning. My son with whom I'm currently staying and I have a joke about "things you don't tell your mother about" (for him) and "things you don't tell your grown son about" (for me). My outing this morning falls in the latter category. What I did? Ran/walked from Westwood to Culver City. Along a major street, over a huge freeway, in the dark and foggy pre-dawn hours. My total mileage came to eight. Only five more until I can say I'm ready for the half!
I find that I need to push myself, even to the point of doing slightly stupid things, in order to feed my courage. How else am I to not feel like a non-functional, decrepit old lady? I just try to keep the challenges I set at the "slightly" stupid level, as opposed to the "completely." Timidity is not for the active. And I intend to stay among the active for as long as I'm breathing.
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