It’s the last day of February and I for one couldn’t be happier. We are now 3 weeks away from Spring! It’s been a rough winter as it’s been one of the coldest and one of the snowiest in recent memory. This past month especially has been brutal on me but thankfully I have a number of great friends who helped to make some days far better than others. On January 31st was when I first noticed some soreness in my ankle and 2 days later is when I sprained the hell out of it. Fast forward 4 weeks later and I am still feeling the effects although what I feel these days is thankfully nothing like that first week.
Originally I planned to start jogging again on March 1st. I was looking forward to this date all winter. I knew that in March there would be days where it would be too snowy and icy to jog but there’d also be a number of days where the streets were clear and I could. I was going to jog in the parkway every day I could akin to several summers back when I ran every single day for 4-5 months and shaved a lot of weight off my frame and put myself in a condition where I was nearly able to run some of those 5k or 10k races they have in Buffalo throughout the year. But I was ruthless with how much and how hard I ran myself, even going so far as to strap ankle weights on to make it more difficult. Then when that became easy I also strapped on weighted gloves to pump my arms as I ran. For a few weeks I was running with over 10 pounds of weight strapped to myself! At first I felt powerful and unstoppable but a short time later my body began to fight against me and I had some of the worst knee and joint pain I’ve ever had. I had to stop for a while. That while turned into many weeks. After all those weeks of not running my knees began to improve but it was too late. I lost the desire to continue. The momentum was broken. Then of course over time I gained the weight back and then some and felt awful about it.
Four times in my life I’ve lost a significant amount of weight and then something happened. One time I got bronchitis and then pneumonia which threw me way off course and helped me to gain back the weight. Another time my dad got really sick and died and I went into a deep funk it took me a very long time to escape from and when I escaped I escaped heavier than I began. I already mentioned the sore knees and joints which stopped me and another time my gym membership ran out and I couldn’t afford to renew it which resulted in a funk I couldn’t shake until gaining back all the weight again. In every case something happened and I let it beat me. I remember thinking maybe the higher powers of the universe want me to be fat. Why else would they put these obstacles in my way? Other times I think that maybe these were challenges to test me that I needed to overcome. In reality, I don’t know what it means, but I know where I’ve been and what I’ve learned. So okay, maybe I’m not physically ready to start running tomorrow on the 1st, but maybe I will be a week from now. I’ll start when I’m able and I won’t let up until I’m satisfied. Football starts in 7 weeks, kickball in 2 months and who knows what other sports I will commit to this spring. I must utilize the wisdom I’ve acquired and the patience I’ve learned to get there. I want to be more than ready. I want to be ready and happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment