Don't Give Up

It's been over a week now since the half marathon. The abductor strain has kept me off the pavement, so I've been dealing with the aftermath of success and the removal of an obsession. I was surprised by how sore I felt after Sunday. Obviously the abductor hurt, but my quads and calves quickly stiffened up to the point where I was I was hobbling around the office with a pained expression on my face. As predicted, I was in good company.

Balance on Tuesday helped the hamstrings, but my abductor stopped me from being able to fully engage in a surprising number of moves. So it was off to the physio again. Thankfully the diagnosis wasn't too scary - a probable strained long abductor, no tear, no damage to the quad. If I hold off the running and stretch everything should come right fairly quickly.

Duck played her part by working my upper body and core reasonably hard on Thursday (though the gossip to exercise ratio was fairly poor). By Friday I was already feeling a lot better and the physio seemed pleased. A weekend in Taranaki with my parents ensured that I got more rest. I took my tramping gear, cycling gear and running clothes with me, but in the end the weather was horrific - pouring rain and gale winds. Instead of climbing the mountain we spent the weekend eating and sitting in front of the fire. A toasted sandwich on arrival segued into a bottle of wine. A full roast chicken dinner was followed by a yummy berry cheesecake for dessert (admittedly from Mum's favourite diabetic magazine).

We decided to stay up to watch the America's Cup, so it was off to the supermarket for a bag of grapes and a bag of corn chips. At 11pm Dad started on a chocolate cake Mum had hiding in the pantry, so of course everyone had to have chocolate cake. I polished off most of the grapes and we all had a good go at the corn chips. The next day I polished off some cereal and two bowls of chicken soup with bread, then after driving through torrential rain to get back home again, Hamish and I shared fish and chips for dinner. I'm surprised I didn't roll into bed.

This week I've been (in theory) easing back into things (and trying to eat a bit better). I did my lower body weights session for the first time in weeks on Monday morning and ran with the squad on Monday night. We did the standard 2.4km fit test, but it was my first run since the half and I wasn't planning on pushing it. With my abductor hurting by the half way mark I ended up running a very slow 11.48, well down from my PB of 10.36. I'm trying not to let that bother me, because I know I took it easy and still managed to run under 5 minute km's.

On Tuesday a ruthless Balance class with Mike left my shoulders and abs aching, so I skipped the upper body/core workout I'd been planning. I jumped on a x-trainer and went hardout for 20 minutes, then I jumped on a spin bike and went even harder for 45 minutes in Duck's RPM class. It's been ages since I did RPM and I can feel the improvement in my leg strength and cardio fitness. It will be a good summer on my bike if I keep this up.

A physio appointment on Wednesday, then I watched the girls head out for a short run as I prepared to do another 30 minutes on a x-trainer. I hate the darn thing, but it will enable me to keep my fitness up while this poor body repairs itself. Already I'm pushing myself too hard. After Monday's weights my quads and hamstrings were aching.

I had a good upper body/core session with Duck this morning, and decided to take the rest of the day off from any cardio. However I'm going to be up early tomorrow morning for my first Friday RPM in months, and I'll do Balance at lunch time. Depending on how I'm feeling I may try to run for a short time on the treadmill on Saturday before Balance with Clare. Otherwise there will again be a x-trainer with my name on it.

One thing that has become clear to me this week is that I need to have another goal. Thankfully I have several half marathons on the agenda. It seems I need to always be working towards something to feel happy.

As I move on from the Harbour Capital half I've been enjoying the feeling of consolidating my success. In the end I think I was surprised, not so much by the fact that I'd finally done it, but that it felt so easy. After a few Google searches on success and achievement I came across this quote:

Success is doing what you said you would do, with ease

I don't know that I totally agree. I think that I would still have been successful had I run the half whilst finding it incredibly hard. I agree more that success is finishing what you planned to do. It's taken me several years to finally reach this point, but I was successful in the end because I was persistent. At a certain point I decided I wanted to do something, then I consistently put steps in place to get there. I had to overcome several obstacles, but I didn't let them stop me, and each time I hit a wall I worked out a way to get around it. Success, then is:

Steadily taking action on our most important goals.

I made this one of my important goals, and I will admit that I have at times been almost obsessive about reaching it.

Lastly, I overcame failure - defined as a lack of faith in one self. I reached a point where I believed in my own ability to do this thing, demonstrated in the little voice in my head that told me how wonderful I was and how much fun I was having, the whole 21km.

Duck said something in RPM on Tuesday night that I couldn't get out of my head. All she said to the class was 'don't give up'. She says it all the time, and she's sure as heck said it to me more than once. I will even admit that, at times, I've given up anyway (which was my choice, by the way, and I regretted it each time). There have been times where my self-doubt has won over. I can't guarantee it won't happen again in the future, but I suspect it's going to happen a lot less often.

A funny thing happened on Wednesday night. I know that if you Google jog squad my blog comes up, but I wasn't expecting to be recognised as the writer of 'that blog'. I guess now I'm imfamous!

If you are a Jog Squadder and you read this, please do let me know. It's nice to know that someone out there takes an interest in my blathering on!