I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Blow Your House Down

We all know the story of the Three Little Pigs.  The first pig builds his house of straw; the wolf comes and blows it down.  The second builds his house of twigs; the wolf comes and blows it down.  The third builds his house of bricks; the wolf comes in through the chimney.

When I started running, I basically built my running fitness out of straw.  I didn't have a foundation and the "walls" were very weak. Consequently, I ended up getting hurt.    After taking five weeks off, I was able to run again.  I talked about strength training quite a bit, but I really didn't know what to do at the time so I "built my house out of sticks" and simply added biking and swimming to my running.  I thought I was doing well to add yoga to the mix.

Quite a while later I had a little issue with my knee.  (Can you hear the "WHOOSH" sound of the big bad wolf's hot air?)  After the requisite five weeks off, I came back strong at Wet Dog, moving right back into a house of sticks!!

Then this issue hit with my shoulder in September 2012.  Fifteen months worth of issue.  If you've followed my blog for long, you'll know I had surgery January 2014.  Unfortunately, it wasn't five weeks off this time, it was EIGHT.

From the time I was told I needed surgery until yesterday I was making plans about "building my house of bricks" when the time came.  I was thinking through how I wasn't going to start running/biking/swimming right out of the gate.  I was going to work on general strength--core, arms, legs, even respiratory muscles!  No more big bad wolf for me.  Strong foundation and strong walls, that was the plan.

Until I heard, "you can do what ever you WANT to!"

WANT!  What I want is to race McKay Hollow on March 22nd.  I want to start training for another IronMan.  I want to get out on my bike.  That's like when my husband says "what do you WANT to eat?"  What I WANT is pizza, ice cream, Mexican, lasagna, Kit Kat, Nutty Bars...and the list goes on.  I don't WANT salad and grilled chicken.

Pig number one and number two WANTED to have fun.  They wanted to play all day.  They didn't WANT to take the time to build a solid foundation and solid walls.  And...clearly they weren't thinking about the big bad wolf!  Pig number three however took the time on the front end to prepare a good footing.  He properly stacked brick and mortar, and obviously put in a sizable fireplace because when the big bad wolf couldn't blow number three's house down, that wolf ended up in a soup pot!!

I'm not saying I won't be running/swimming/Spinning*, but I can say I will be doing so sparingly while I work on my masonry skills!  I'd rather have wolf soup than be forced to take five or eight (or more) weeks off again!!


Until next time....  :D

(*My surgeon said Spin is okay but no biking right now.)