Thursday, February 10, 2011

Updates, Blog Changes and Revisiting 2011 Resolutions

I have not been a good blogger since December when my achilles tendon started to hurt during the Santa Shuffle fun run. I knew while running that day that my tendon needed a break. After London was hit by "Snowmageddon" (it actually made national headlines because we were so buried by snow and it has yet to let up!) and has since experienced the coldest, hardest winter in years, running has become impossible for me (kudos to the few bundled up people I have seen outside in this crazy weather, keeping their running up, because the conditions are tough tough tough!). The winter weather truly has been challenging, and re-injuring my achilles tendon a few more times while wearing stable winter boots when walking the dogs is very frustrating. :( I keep telling myself that this is the ideal time to be injured, when the weather is -20 degrees Celsius and the snowbanks are as tall as me! If I were injured when the weather was ideal for running, I would be very very very very bummed rather than just bummed - LOL!

And so I am trying to return to running, slowly but safely. My first new year's resolution for 2011 is to run safely without injury so this is first and foremost.

I have updated my blog. I did not run on New Year's Eve in the Running Room Resolution Run so this link was removed. I have the RR winter orange jacket from the event to match my RR yellow jacket from last year's RR run, but ironically, these two runs are the only ones I have registered for without actually running! :( I have signed up for the Really Chilly Road Race at the end of this month (February 27th), but since I have only 16 days left to prepare, I registered for the 5K instead of the 10K. I am keeping my fingers crossed that, between now and Good Friday in April, when the next/second London Honda Series run is scheduled, I will be running and training again so that I can run in a 10K. However, until I can get out there running, I am not going to register for "two runs ahead" (see NY Resolutions page) until I am confident that my achilles tendon is no longer a problem.

I have hidden my "half marathon in 2:15" and "10K in one hour" page links on the blog because they are not doable right now. Once I can get my running back up to my previous Fall 2010 level, I will edit the dates on these training pages and repost them as my training plans when I am physically capable of incorporating them. They are terrific plans and my desire is to return to them once I am physically able to.

I am also trying to keep all of this in perspective. I am disappointed that I am not running at the level I envisioned myself at for this time when I was making plans last fall; however, I knew when I made my running/training schedule that it would be altered repeatedly due to the weather. I just didn't bank on the winter being so tough and a tender achilles tendon to boot! :( However, at this time last year, I was not running either. I started getting back into it haphazardly at the end of March, and was able to run a 5K by the beginning of May. I am actually further ahead now than I was last year at this time - I weigh less, I am fitter, and my desire to start running again as soon as I can is greater. It's not that I can't achieve my goals; it's just that I have to alter the dates for achieving them, given the circumstances that have affected me. I will likely not make it to Toronto for the women-only half marathon as planned :( ... but it just means that I will need to find another half marathon to take its place later in the year. :)


2 comments:

  1. Great idea's and doable goals there. I know you will take it easy and get back into this slowly and safely. Stay the course and if I can help let me know. I know all about having to restart running, been there and done it.

    Glad to hear your good spirit as I read your post. Glad to see you are keeping it in the correct perspective.

    Way to go.

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  2. William, thank you for your encouraging "motivations" on Dailymile and the comments you are leaving on my blog posts. I truly appreciate them, and you are helping me already with your consistent encouragement! :) I am also envious of you in Toronto, too ... we drove through it at Christmas-time on our way to Peterborough, and it was a shell-shocking to see how there was NO SNOW there in comparison to our foot-high snowfalls! Keep up your great work and I hope to be back at it sooner than later. :)

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