Friday, April 15, 2005

The Door

I walked into a door just now. It was completely dark, I was headed towards my bathroom. In order to get to my bathroom, I have to pass through this door...this particular door is always closed. So, I didn't think anything of walking towards the door in the dark, only this time the door was partially open. I hit it right at my brow bone in between my nose and my left eye. It hurt so much that my eyes got all watery. I was a pathetic sight. Needless to say, I now have a headache as I head off to bed. **sigh**

Thursday, April 14, 2005

I Have Succeeded

Today, my best friend and her sister joined the gym. I am SO excited about the prospect of having others to go workout with! I know that within 4 weeks, they will be just as addicted as I am. YAY! They are not as excited as me, but I'm sure they're more excited than they make themselves out to be.

We had our first workout together this evening. The first one is never as intense as the rest, but I had so much fun. This is the beginning of a great spring! I'll keep you posted.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

A Lesson in Orthotics

About five weeks ago, I took up running. I do it about 4-5 times a week now, and I absolutely love it. Now, I'm not in the marathon running league quite yet -- I have a ways to go -- but I can hold my own. Anyway, in about week two of running I noticed that after 20 mins my left foot would start to hurt right at the bottom of my foot. Then in week three, my right foot would also hurt after 30 mins. Conclusion: I needed new runners.

I went to my local Running Room where they examined my feet, and watched me walk a bit. The sales lady told me that I have flat feet, and that I pronate (sic?). She then brought out pair after pair of runners, until I found a pair that felt right. I settled with Basics GT2100's, a mere $150 (plus tax).

After breaking them in a bit, I took them out on their maiden run...and what a difference! I could run farther and faster, and the feet didn't hurt. Now I could finally experience the "runner's high".

When I bought those runners, it got me thinking more and more about my feet. I spend a minimum of 10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week wearing high heels. Obviously, not good at all for the feet, the knees or the back. Conclusion: I needed orthotics.

Went to a doctor, got my feet checked out with this cool scanning thing and they sent my scans off to a lab where my orthotics could be made. Two weeks later (yesterday), I have orthotics to put into my high heels.

When you get a set of orthotics, they come with some instructions. The instructions say that you should not jump right into wearing them all day, instead you should start out by wearing them for 30 mins then an hour and so forth.

I like results fast, therefore I decided I would wear my orthotics to work. I also decided that if they got too uncomfortable, I would take them out in the middle of the day. First mistake: wearing them to work. Second mistake: actually thinking I would have time to take them out, when I usually don't even have time for a washroom break. In my great wisdom, I headed to work wearing a brand new pair of orthotics.

As the day progressed, I could feel that my left ankle was getting a bit sore. Today was one of those days where I had so much to do, and not nearly enough time (ok, so that's everyday). Needless to say, I did not get a chance to take them out and I ended up wearing them for almost 10 hours today.

At the end of the work day, I changed into my running gear and went to my favourite running place. As I was warming up, I could feel the soreness in my ankle a bit. I didn't think anything of it and went on with my regular routine. When I started to run, the ankle started to scream. I could not run for even five minutes today! I was so disappointed, I had to walk my run route and it felt so...wrong.

As a result of this fiasco, I have not been able to destress. When that happens, I can't get to sleep at night. I will be up all night long, thinking of the lesson I learned today:

The instructions are there for a reason...follow them.

Monday, April 11, 2005

My Very First Blog

This is the very first blog ever! To be honest, I don't know whether me and blogging will take off...I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I heard Oprah say today, "You are not your mistakes, you are your possibilities." Let me fly.