This week I’m on vacation and it is moving fast. Additionally, I’m having a bit of cabin fever and I was thinking that I should go to the gym to get out of the house. However, my gym is not close to home – it’s on the way to work, and since I’ve been on vacation I haven’t felt the need to drive 35 minutes each way, nor waste gas money to drive to the gym and back, especially with one trip being roughly a quarter of a tank of gas. Besides, I’ll bet that the gym is just jam-packed full of people working on their New Years resolutions. Who even knows if there would be any open treadmills anyway? With that said, it has been about three days since I last worked out and I really need to get a run in today if I want to stay on track with my running schedule.
So I took a look out of the front window only to find freshly plowed roads. I made a low grumbling noise, because the excuse that I was going to use to get out of running today was no longer true. Yeah, it had snowed, but the roads were clear, so it was safe to go running outside. At that moment I mentally checked in and asked myself, “Why don’t you want to run outside today?” Then it hit me: I had been hesitant to run outside because I was worried about my Achilles tendon. I haven’t gone running on the road since I injured myself. Right now I feel like I’m in a good place and I’ve been progressing through the Couch to 5K program pretty well. Not only that, I’ve started to add new things into my workout routine, and for once I’m starting to feel healthy and strong again – and I really didn’t want to mess that up over one run outside on the pavement.
See, this is what injuries do to you. Mine has me second-guessing myself. I’ve taken fewer risks and not pushed myself as hard because I know how it feels to lose it all and be sidelined. I’m trying to not be there anymore, so here’s the dilemma: do I stay indoors and not run today, or do I go for that run outside and risk tweaking something again? I really had to ask myself which pain was greater, the guilt of not running today or the pain of running outside with the possibility of re-injuring myself? Of course, there’s also a third possibility: that I go running outside today and I don’t injure myself.
I grumbled again and decided the guilt from not running today would be more painful than worrying about getting injured again. I put on my running gear, headed outside, and started my intervals for the day (5-minute run, 3-minute walk, 6-minute run, 3-minute walk, 5-minute run). No more than three minutes into the run, I noticed that my left calf muscle was tight, so I slowed down and became hyper aware of that leg. I even went so far as to stop a few times during the run to stretch my calves out. I ended up kicking myself a bit over it, asking myself why I decided to run on the pavement today. However, when I got to the second interval, I notice the tightness in my calf was gone. I let out a sigh of relief. Finally, I had caught a break! The rest of the run went amazingly well and I even remember smirking at one point during the run.
Today I learned a valuable lesson: the pain of not going out there for a run is far greater than the thought of possibly injuring myself again. I would rather run – and run the risk getting injured while doing something that fills my life with so much joy – than sitting on the couch and feeling guilty and sad because I didn’t go for run today.
Have you ever been in the same situation? Are you sitting on the fence, wondering if you should start your own journey to better health by running – or are you prepared to take the first step but you haven’t yet? Have you noticed something is still holding you back? Ask yourself if the pain you’re feeling right now, the pain of not starting, is greater than the pain you’ll experience if you set off towards your goals of better health. If the answer is “yes,” then do yourself a favor, my friend: Get started!
Have you gone through something similar? Has the pain of not starting ever turned out to be greater than the pain you actually endured when you started? Leave a comment below and share your experiences.
Until next time, keep crushing goals!
