Because I’m taking care of myself with the therapy, I am no
longer getting nearly as many headaches as I used to. I can tell when my muscles are beginning to
get tight and I can make changes to take care of that. I can tell the
difference between a weather headache (yes, I still get them) and a tension
headache. Because my headaches are decreasing, I can do other things that I’ve
not wanted to do because of the fear of an onslaught.
Working out is one of those things I avoided because of the
headaches. Who knows, maybe if I had worked out more and did more muscle work
I’d not be in this mess in the first place. Hindsight and all that bull…
The family and I went to WDW in September 2011 and I think I
only needed ONE migraine pill. I was
fine the majority of the time, and that was a huge win for me. While we were there, I saw something (I think
Wine & Dine Marathon information) that put the Princess back in the
forefront of my thoughts. I didn’t say anything, but it was there.
During the holidays, I began to think of the upcoming year
(2012) and what changes I wanted to make. I hate New Year’s Resolutions, but
for me, change was coming fast and I needed to get out of my own damn way, lest
I run myself over. I was tired of being
fat. I was tired of being tired. I was tired of being unhealthy. I was just tired of myself, I think. It’s hard to put into words what I was
thinking or feeling because most of the time, it was lingering just under the
surface, the way cold water is below the warm tides of the ocean.
I began researching things on the internet, things like HOW
to run, how a fat girl CAN run, what kind of shoes to get (what girl doesn’t
need shoes?) and stuff like that. I
decided to get through the holidays before I really did anything, but every
day, the call of the miles was getting stronger in my head.
On the DIS, I found the WISH forums (We’re Inspired to Stay Healthy). There was lots of
chatter about the upcoming 2012 Princess, so I lurked on the boards. A lot. I
found a link to Jeff Galloway’s training programs. I read through his website
and found a conditioning program for beginners – ME! It involved walking interspersed with small
bits of running (the first day was 10 minutes of walking and running, with a 5
second run once a minute). Surely I
could do this! I printed that and tucked
it away.
I found the Couch to 5K program as well and after looking it
over, it looked like I would be able to transition from JG directly to C25K
pretty seamlessly. I printed that out,
too, and tucked it away. I went back to
Jeff’s website and printed the actual training schedule for a half-marathon.
This too got tucked away for further review.
By mid-January, I was about 80% sure I was going to do this.
I posted a great video of the 2011 PHM on my Facebook page and my mother and I
began talking about it like it was a real option. The more I talked, the more I wanted to do
it. I showed the video to my hubby, and it was really the first time I said aloud
that I *was* going to do it. Up until
then, it was a quiet dream I kept in my head. Hubby suggested that our 14-year
old daughter run it with me. After showing her the video, she said she wanted
to do it as well. At this point, I was
about 90% sure that we’d be doing this in a bit over a year from then.
By the end of January, I had concocted a training schedule
that looked like this: Jeff Galloway’s
Conditioning Plan > Couch to 5K Plan > Jeff Galloway’s Half-Marathon
Training Plan. I had to work the
training days around days I worked late and my therapy days, but there is a
scheduled plan now!
It felt real.
