Running Again

It’s a Friday morning and I’ve been home now for just about a week since my last hospital visit, I’ve taken it easy for the most part and have put some weight back on again. I promised everyone that I wouldn’t run for a week, well…today that time was basically up, so instead of laying awake in bed staring at the clock at 5 in the morning, I decided to get up and get back at it. Now, I’ll explain a little of my workout routine and thought process going into it. I was always bad with stretching before and after a run, but now I do a quick five to ten minute leg stretch, also trying to focus on some deep breathing while doing this. Another important part is to warm up those shoulders, they work more then you think on longer runs especially. Don’t kid yourself I know the warming up is super important, but I hate stretching, probably because I’m so bad at it. My family can usually have a good laugh when a sadly try to reach my toes, stopping just below my knees before a tight pain comes from my hamstrings. I believe that my superhero name could easily be “Inflexible Man”, sadly..This mornings run was just to get my body(lungs) warmed up again after a weeks rest, so when I took off it was at a light pace, I wear a fitbit to track my overall length, time, and sometimes most importantly time per kilometre, so this mornings I wanted to keep an eye on the latter, jog at about 5.30 mins/km. Today I had tunes in my ears as I ran, sometimes there is no music and I prefer to listen to myself. Running without music or anything to listen to except your own thoughts is another whole topic in itself and I promise I’ll return to that in a later post, it deserves one of it’s own.

I choose to listen to a wide verity of music when I go, the real go to is 90’s tunes, I’m partial to that and believe it’s the best era of music. As I start into a light jog, I get down a block or so and get my breathing under control, deep draws and quick exhales seems to be my natural rhythm, although when I’m deep in a run and at a fast pace you could probably here me coming a block away, like some wild animal baring down on it’s prey, I’ve gotten a few looks down at the Avon River. Ok, like a said after a couple blocks, breathing under control, my legs just seem to take over and my mind focuses straight ahead, like some meditative state, this is the feeling I’ve missed for a week. A couple km’s in and legs feel good, lungs are fine, they’re drawing a little harder then usual I look at my fitbit, 5.10 mins/km, a little faster then I want for this first run back, but it’s hard to slow down, I’ve always been hard on myself that way, push harder, no slowing down or giving in! My regular pace for say a 10 km run is 5min/km, but I can get to 4.45 min and I’m always driving hard to improve. Today’s run is only about 5 km, I finish a block from my place and slowly walk back, just under 25 minutes to complete, at about 5.16 min/km, so close to what I want, a little fast, but hey, that’s me. Everyone is still sleeping when I get back in the apartment to cool down. Boy, it feels good to feel more like myself again.

My Doctor used the word resilient to describe some of her cancer patients last time I saw her, another one of my new favourite words! Now I wouldn’t use it to describe me, I think I fit words more like stubborn or determined, I hope. I think of what I’ve seen in the hospitals over the past year and how sick and worn out a lot of these people are as they receive their chemo, radiation and other such treatments and they are resilient and show no quit even against some of the worst odds. So when I have my attacks, and they are awful, I remember some of the real suffering that I have seen and realise I’m fortunate enough to know that I will recover and still do what I want, for the most part still, physically. I’m still learning to deal with the mental and emotional toll that the past year has put on me and that will last a lifetime, now that’s another whole post in itself as well.

Now I threw that last paragraph in there for a reason, those all closest to me asked me to take it easy for at least a week, maybe even the two months? Ok, like that’s gonna happen. I get out there and after it because I realise one day that running, or any exercise, especially at that level will be taken from me and more then likely a lot earlier then I’m going to be ready for. So, for now I go for it, when I feel great I run hard and long, “that’s what she said?” I’m so sorry babe, I typed that before even knowing what I had said. Now if I don’t have a sense of humour, you know something is really wrong! Now, back to what I was saying, I feel good I go, when I feel tired and worn down, I still go. Cause who knows when that day will come when what’s left of my health is stolen, I don’t what to look back and think, boy I wish I would’ve just gotten off the couch when I could have……I don’t even think you need to have cancer to think that, maybe it just puts that perspective a lot clearer. Cheers!

Well I honestly didn’t even mean to blab on about running in this post it just kind of organically poured out on the screen. One thing I have added to my home page is a donation button, now don’t ever feel like you have to give anything, I just enjoy this blogging to much, but if you feel compelled, a portion will always go to the CNETS and a small bit may be used to create content, but my content will always be there for anyone to enjoy. In other news though, CNETS annual fund raiser has started and I’m signed up and will be looking for donations during our Hoofing it campaign. Tracy and I have had some generous prize donations roll in already and will soon be offering up tickets for those and raffling them off, but more on that soon. We will create a video and post it, makes things a little clearer. Once again thanks for reading, Love you all…