The Road To Wellness

Nice to see you! Wishing you a healthy day!

I’ve always wanted to call myself a runner. Running has always struck me as such an elite form of exercise. To run is hard. There are so many issues to be dealt with–knees, ankles, prickly heat, cars, and did I say knees? I’ve attempted running before. I’d like to take it up again. There’s something so wonderful about power cardio.

As if that wasn’t enough motivation, but a news story from Reuters touts running as the path to live a long life. Count me in! I know that when I ran, I felt good. I felt attractive. I felt confident. Running does that for a person. I think what I liked best about it was challenging myself. I wasn’t out to win any races. I was out to best my own performance. Being something of an introvert, this type of personal goal is very fulfilling to me.

After my shoulder injury, I’m gradually getting back to my routine. I walked 2.75 miles today. Sure, I was a wee bit sore at first, but did I feel good. And talk about accomplishment! I set a goal for myself today and I did it. On to the next challenge.

Photo by Kekka

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I’ve been doing well with the workouts. I’ve even earned a reward. I give myself one point for every workout and cardio I do. After 25, I get a treat. It works. I like seeing the calendar with all those marks on it.

I haven’t been running, but rather doing long 4+ mile walks. It worked for me before. Besides, I get my errands done so it does double duty. Yesterday, we went geocaching. We walked eight miles. Talk about a workout! I feel good today, no pain. It was a good challenge. I’m glad we did it.

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It’s official; the summer weather is upon us. We finally got our boat in the water. Now comes the challenge–balancing workouts with running with boating and the overeating that accompanies it. On the plus side, once the water warms up I’ll be able to add swimming to my crosstraining.

Yesterday, I decided to do a long walk. I have a nice route along some country roads. The scenery is so lovely. The gravel roads aren’t too bad; they spray them in places. The people traveling this road are very polite too, slowing down so as not to spray me with gravel or dirt. That’s not the case with another country road I’ve walked and have since abandoned.

I came across something really fun to add to my walks. It’s been around forever, but I’ve just discovered geocaching. The basic idea is to have individuals hide caches that others can then locate by following the coordinates with a GPS unit. Sounds easy? Think again. While GPS units do have a good bit of accuracy (higher ones even more so), they are still subject to the actions of satellites, ground cover, and topography. That GPS unit may get you to the valley, but down below it may be of little use. That’s where the treasure hunt part comes in.

Caches can be simply a log book, or articles can be added for a theme with the idea that one item is taken and one left in its place. Of course, an entry to the log book is also part of the game and part of the fun, reading of others’ adventures.

I plan to have some fun with geocaching on our next vacation to Door County. I’ve gathered a list of geocaches in the area from Geocaching.com. This is the site to visit for anything about geocaching from lists of geocaches to resources to info on GPS units and geocaching events. Of course, it’s all for fun, but a great way to get out there and explore your world.

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I felt great after my run. So glad to have accomplished a goal. We have another race or two in mind for the season.

I did experience a little soreness the days afterwards. Shin splints. I guess I pushed it a bit. A few days later I was fine. I tried stretches and massaging my legs. That seemed to do the trick. I’m going to add some strength exercises that target my calves. I figure that may have been part of my problem–that and pushing it.

I came across a good article today about running and weight loss. The links to calorie calculators were most helpful and enlightening. As the article states, you check three different sources and you get three different answers, but at least all of them were in a range that I expected.

I’m continuing with the Couch to 5k program. I’m putting myself in Week 6 to build up my running time and prevent any reoccurrence of pain. All in all I’m feeling good and ready to keep on running.

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Saturday, I completed a longtime goal. I finished my first 5k race. I am so excited and thrilled, and well, all of it. The weather was a bit iffy to start. In fact, it started raining a cold rain as we waited. Eventually though it cleared up. The event was a run for Celiac Disease. I was proud to do something for my nephew, afflicted with that condition.

As it got closer to race time, I was clearly nervous as my husband picked up on. Five minutes before the start, we lined up. Looking at the list for the pre-registration, we only expected about 50 runners. There were actually over 100. My husband directed us toward the back of the pack, but I wanted to be closer to the front where the action was going to be. I have to admit it was a bit surreal having Ronald MacDonald give us that final pep talk and counting down for the start.

We ran through a neighborhood to start. It was so encouraging to see people out, cheering us on. At another point we passed kids lined up, ready to slap our hands. What a rush! There were some tough moments, like when we ran past some sewer set up. Hard to take deep breaths there. Of course, there were a few hills. The sun heated things up and that made for an extra challenge. Finishing the race, there were people cheering me on, the official shouting out my time of 35 minutes, 7 seconds. I did it!

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