Monday, March 23, 2015

Taking a Rest Week

I made the decision this morning to take an honest to goodness break from all exercise this week. Lifting and running injuries have been popping up, and I'm finally going to listen to my body and give it the rest it's practically yelling for. It's hard because I have so many goals but I realize that is very short-term in the bigger picture. Yes, I want to cross that finish line for the marathon in May so, SO badly but I also want to be running for the next 30+ years. I'm not even kidding when I say that, I have extremely long-term plans for running!

So, I'm taking this toe pain issue seriously and I'm going to take this week off, and then hopefully jump back in to training next week. I've been doing a lot of research and I'm praying that it's an easy fix like a lot of the running experts suggest. Fingers crossed that I can get the right shoes to fix the problem, and that regular icing and exercises can prevent any further pain. That's my game plan for now at least! My main goal is to control it enough to get through the next two months, and if it turns in to something longer then I'll address it after May.

I know, I know that isn't ideal but like I said I signed up for that marathon and I have all intentions of running every single step of it. I'm not giving up that easily! It's only 6 weeks away at this point so I have very little precious time to spare.

I've also given up lifting entirely right now due to a lower back issue that has been flaring up every so often. It happened in the very beginning when I was first lifting, most likely when I was working on better form, and went away for awhile. Well, I admit I probably didn't give my body enough time to rest (I promise that's something I'm learning to work on!) so it's been coming back from time to time. Since it didn't heal all the way, certain moves can really start to aggravate it but again I didn't always give my body enough rest.

That's another change I'm making this week, and I've decided that I really need to try out yoga like I've been saying for many, many, many months (most likely years ha). I've always heard it from other runners that it helps them a lot with running in terms of stretching out muscles and strengthening their body. So since I am wiping my schedule completely clean of all other exercise then there's no time like the present! I'm hoping that the combination of rest and yoga will help my back injury.

Most likely I will keep lifting out of the equation for the next couple months to ensure that my back fully recovers, and to give my full attention to running. I need to remember that even though I'm young, I'm not invincible and I NEED to invest in my body now and take care of it if I want to keep up with exercising.

With that said, I'm off to research some yoga and I'll let you know what I find!

Hope you all have a wonderful start to the week!

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