If you don't use it, you lose it.

That statement pretty much sums up what has gone on for me in the last 9 weeks.

If I was to compare the amount of physical work I've done in the last 9 weeks to any other period over the last 18 months I have been a lazy sack of hammers....

With my goal to do 2 IronMans (New Zealand in March, Canada this weekend) in about 6 months my training for the last 18 months had been consistent, with huge improvements in my bike and run. I thought everything was going well for me until 10 weeks ago.

Training had been going pretty good, and I felt I had a huge amount of base that could push me through race day. I had been running with shin splints for quite some time (about a year), and although they were uncomfortable, I felt the issue wasn't getting worse, so my doctor and I saw no reason to adjust my training. Well that all changed when I got a bone scan that revealed 12 medial-lateral tibial stress fractures (yes, 6 on each side).

Was I disappointed, yes? But after wallowing in my sorrows for a weekend , it was time to move on. I've spent the summer building my business, having more free time and trying not to think about my running shoes and bike that sit by the door, sad and unused.

Ok, so fast track 10 weeks which brings me to now.

Just got back from my first opportunity to get back into some sort of shape, Usana's Children Hunger Fund Run. A 5km run to raise funds for the Childrens Hunger Fund in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Now I won't go into depressing details, but I will say that my 1 minute run, 4 minute walk put my 5 km time about 4 minutes slower than my best 10km time.
Right now, running for a minute was tough! my feet hurt, my lungs burn- I'm going to blame that on the 1400m of elevation, and my ego has been checked nicely into a small box.

So what did I think about during the run? How my heart was pumping 35% less blood per pump, that 10 weeks ago I had a much better body composition, with these great Type 1 muscle fibers that got me to where I wanted to go with minimal energy expenditure, the electrical conduction that regulates the rate and effectivness of my heart were not as in sync as they were at one point, that my brain and muscles were wishing there was more of those nice hemoglobin molecules to help deliver precious oxygen to the tissue that it desperately needed, and that at this elevation the partial pressure of oxygen makes it harder to go from my lungs to my blood, and even harder to get out of the blood to where it needs to go.... Yes, these are the thoughts that passed through my mind as a struggled to keep a smile on my face.

But here's one thing I know, it can only get better from here. And that today was my big take home message- if you don't use it, you lose it. Your body doesn't care if you did run a marathon a few months ago, or if in your younger days you were an elite athlete. We all need to exercise frequently and consistently!

Going to start training for real this week- starting with a few run/walks each week starting with 1 minute run, 4 minute walk, and building from there. Some water running, some swimming and a bit of biking until the weather forces me inside.

Now the silver lining is that I was able to raise over 500$ for a charitable cause. Thank you to everyone who was able to sponsor me for this event.

Looking forward to the day when a 10km run can be done as a normal maintenance session. Until then I'll keep my ego in that small box next to my shoes and bike.