Really Halfway to Another Decade!

by Karen Elizaga | Posted: August 17th, 2010 | No Comments »

The summer has flown by, and I hope you are squeezing every last drop of vacation, fun and sunshine out of it! And now it’s really six months to 40 for me. It’s been an interesting, slightly challenging time. When I envisioned this summer, I pictured lots of activity… tennis, marathon training and just goofing around with the kids. Unfortunately, I had a physical hiccup in early July that put the kibosh on the first two, and made me a little cautious with the last.

I think I may have shared this already, but in July, while on a business trip, the journey for which took entirely too long, I went for a 5-mile run on 4 hours of sleep. It was to be my first official day of training, but at around mile 3, I felt this odd pain in my hip.

“Just push through it!” I thought. I immediately chastised myself for having the negative thought of not being able or not wanting to run, so I did push through. Turns out, it was not a good idea. I have been rehabbing this hip with my physiotherapist since then, and there’s been no tennis! To be honest, also very little sweat exercise – walking just wasn’t cutting it! The hardest part is being a total goofball with my kids but having to think about what my body is doing.

The niggling thought through this all was – “Am I getting so old that my body can’t handle stuff like this anymore?” And then… “I refuse to be sidelined!” The answer to the question, I concluded, is no. It’s just unfortunate timing, and I just have to be more aware of what’s going on in my body and get stronger to meet these physical challenges.

So what have I done this month to make myself happy, to make others happy, that I’ve been putting off, or that I’d wanted to do for a long time?

• Made the decision not to run the marathon (putting off).
• Bought myself a spinning bike so that I can sweat (wanted to do for a long time, and made myself so happy!).
• Took my daughter to see Wicked with our friends from preschool (made others happy and now have lots of songs to sing at the tops of our lungs – continued happiness).
• Learned so much from Nation of Wimps author Hara Estroff Marano (more on this later!).

So it’s been interesting. Little exercise this summer and probably too much dessert. I am paying for it now, but so happy to be back on the bike and sweating like crazy. Halfway to 40 feels good again. What are you doing to feel good?? I’ll be cheering for the runners from the sidelines in November!