When an injury is a good thing...

Ok, so it might sound crazy for me, a serious running addict, to say that an injury that will keep me from running for several weeks is a good thing. But, I believe that is actually true in this case. I’ve become so addicted to running that I have stopped almost all other workouts. Before yesterday I hadn’t done any weight training since Feb 11^th, my appearances at yoga have been few and far between, I seldom get on the bike anymore. Basically, if it wasn’t running it simply wasn’t worth my time, all I wanted was to run. Yet another example of me not following my own advice. I always remind people how important cross training is, but I’ve basically stopped doing it myself. That’s led to some pretty serious weight gain despite my ridiculous amount of running.

Now I have a stress fracture in my foot and can’t run for at least a few weeks. So what now? Do I just mope around doing nothing at all like I did last week? That’s not good, my weight continues to go up and I continue to get more out of shape, and definitely feeling some depression setting in. That just can’t fly. The injury has forced me to reevaluate my fitness plans. When I first set out on my journey to become healthy I had SO many activities. Weight training, running, karate, yoga, boot camp classes, stationary bike, etc, etc, etc. I did tons of very different types of workouts and I loved every minute of it. Somewhere along the way I lost all of that and became singularly focused on running. Starting on 4/20, I’m taking part in the 100 Day Challenge. This is basically a challenge where you are require to be active for 30 minutes per day for 100 straight days. You can do whatever you want, walk, run, weight train, dance, whatever, just move and be active. I’ve restarted my old weight training plan my trainer set up for me over a year ago. These workouts, by the way, are now just as hard as they were then, about 2 months ago they were so easy I could have done them in my sleep and had seriously upped the weights on. Also, I’ve decided that when I’m healed and can use my foot again I’m going to start P90X. It looks like a great program and I hear lots of good things about it, so I’ll give it a shot. Today I went and bought a chin up bar and some door resistance bands, and I already have some regular resistance bands. I wish I had dumbbells, but I can’t afford a full set. I’m going to try to do some seated shadow boxing to get some sort of cardio in. Tonight I’m going to try out the P90X Ab Ripper X DVD since it is one of the few that doesn’t require putting weight on the feet much, the rest I have to wait for my stress fracture to heal.

Getting back focused on overall strength and health along with my running once my foot heals will only help. It will improve my fitness and help me run farther, faster and stronger. Also, I’m hoping it will help make me a little happier with the way I look; I’ve lost that over the last couple months. I’m not sure all of this would have been put back in the plan if I hadn’t hurt my foot, so as unhappy as I am to miss running due to injury, I think in the long run it might be the best thing that could have happened to me.



This is me at 220 lbs in July '09 and me at about 175 in July '10, I'm back up to 190 now.