Tuesday, March 4, 2014

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.)

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