After my small break from running while I was in therapy, my coach lowered my distance to run and has been slowly increasing it again. This weekend, I had to walk/run for 4.5 miles. His instructions said I had to jog 4 minutes and walk 2, until I reached 4.5 miles. That seemed really doable to me, until I started. I decided to start walking, after stretching but my ankle bothered me so I decided to keep walking a little more to warm up and maybe I would feel better.

By the time I had walked half a mile I still felt something on my ankle but I had to start jogging at some point. It seemed like a good time to start because I wanted to run up a hill that was coming up. Hills are always the most difficult part about running, and because of that, I find them the most exciting. So even if I’m still recovering, I wanted to see if I could jog it. When I saw that I was able to get up that hill with no problems, I knew that I was on the other side of this injury and I will be better soon. 

I do realize that I need to keep making improvements to my workout routine at home, like I have been doing for the last few years. First I went from doing only cardio videos on YouTube, to AppleFitness workouts. On AppleFitness I have been doing many different combinations; I started mixing cardio, strength and core most days or yoga and maybe pilates sometimes. I would do that five times a week for about half an hour to one hour, depending on how much time I had. During that time, I would vary what type of cardio and core exercises I did each day. Cardio would be either HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), Kickboxing, Cycling, or walking/running on the treadmill. Strength would usually be two days of upper, two days of lower and one day of total body. 

That seemed like a good balance because I was doing a lot of different things but I was working out alone at home, with no goals or motivation to improve. Once I joined the running group, everything got a little different, I was doing just cardio four days a week and wasn’t giving that much attention to core or strength and even less lower body strength because I was tired from running. That was until I realized that I also needed lower body and core strength to run. Then I was focusing everything on lower body, until I hurt my ankle and I started therapy, during which I wasn’t allowed to do strength training or run. 

When I finished, I was still a little scared to do anything that would hurt me again, until  I was brave enough to try a total body strength workout. That felt a little safer than just lower body, and seemed like a smart way to tackle everything without having to keep track of what I did every day. That was until I read it’s actually not a good idea to work all your muscles every day because they need time to rest.

So, working on all muscles and not giving them time to rest and recover between strength training is not a good idea. That’s probably another reason I don’t seem to be recovering so quickly; I’m not letting my lower body time to rest.

These are some of the things that I’m learning the hard way; instead of having done research and reading about it first, I’m learning from experience. This will help me remember more than reading about it but I still wouldn’t recommend it, it’s better to do research and read.

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Published by mariacristinasanfeliu

I’m an aspiring writer still looking for exactly what I want to write about, with a lot of creativity, imagination and desire to write. I studied Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University where I explored many different sides of writing through my classes and extracurricular activities in order to narrow my search for an identity as a writer. I have written for Citrus TV Noticias and La Voz magazine, both of which gave me the chance to explore different mediums in which to write in. Through Citrus TV Noticias I also gained experience in translating from English to Spanish and vice versa, which is also something that I would be interested in working on since I am fluent in both of these languages. I was also an intern at Syracuse University Press where I got hands on experience in what goes into actually editing and publishing a book. Through out the last four years I have faced a lot of challenges, which helped chape the person I am today. After being in a tragic car accident, being in comma, having a Traumatic Brain Injury, and being in therapy for over a year, I am a new me, willing to face challenges and knowing how to deal with them. I want to write about my accident and life after it to help others, show them it can be done and help in any way I can.

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