Monday, February 2, 2009

On the Move Again

This past year's been a tough one on my body. Not only am I just getting older, and that's hard enough, but I've had some injuries that have put me up longer than hoped for.

The first was an ATVing accident that was 100% my fault, as I pushed the boundaries of what that Quad could do and felt what it was like to fly. Concussion, whiplash, some cuts and bruises were the minor problems. The back pain lingered longer and eventually required some physio treatments and a trip to a Chinese medicine-man who worked this magic on me by beating the junk out of my back, neck, and shoulder. The worst part was that I tore the two menisci in my left knee. MRI's, sports doctors, and physiotherapists worked on that to get it back in shape, but it was 3 months before I could walk without discomfort and 4 months till I got the go ahead for normal exercise.

That was around late October. Unfortunately, after going to the gym for a few weeks, the next hit came. In November, I was walking down the stairs with Leilani, and the stairs fought back. Now, I always have trouble with stairs, and especially the ones in my house. I fell down them every other day for the first 6 months we lived here. Now that we're almost 3 years in, I do a lot better. But I knew my time would come when my daughter and I took a tumble together. Fortunately, I was able to sacrifice my body to keep Leilani safe. She was fine, but my left foot and ankle were not. Two months later, I'm finally feeling confident to get back to exercise.

So, I'm on the move again. I've been exercising the last few weeks, but it's all involved lifting weights and doing action on the floor that doesn't involve my foot. But now I'm taking the plunge and gonna start hitting the pavement again. I hope to complete my first run this week (complete with ankle brace of course). Short, but hopefully sweet. And come April 26th, I hope to be able to make 10km cause I'm signing up for the Times Colonist run. Really excited actually. Haven't done that since 2001 or something, so I'm eager to try it again. I have NO idea what kind of time my old and injured body will be able to muster, but I'm hoping for at least under 50 minutes. I regularly ran 40-42 minute 10km as an 11 year old so 50 minutes shouldn't be too much of a stretch. I know I can handle the pace, but can my foot handle the distance. Ah well, we'll see!

Check back to hear the report.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Andy! I didn't know you hurt yourself so much!! Glad to hear you are on the mend! geez! be careful!