I need a new challenge

The frequent follower of this blog might have noticed that I’m not really writing much lately. I wish I could say people have been complaining but besides my family no one really seems to care whether I’m blogging or not :-)

However, I really enjoy the writing and am quite keen to keep this blog going. I was just kind of lacking inspiration lately. I started this blog to write about my half-marathon experience and really enjoyed that. But now that is over and I don’t really have anything exciting to write about. Which is not good cause basically it means there is nothing exciting going on in my life. It’s pretty much work, eat sleep, gym, work, eat, sleep, gym,…. Not very exciting!

So, I need a new challenge! URGENTLY! It doesn’t have to be something as huge has a half marathon, just something to keep things interesting. Another long running event is not really an option right now. First I sprained my knee while still training for the marathon and then I apparently strained a vertebra as well sometime last year which then healed kind of wrong and caused some significant pain and some sleepless nights. I was having some back pain for a while but just didn’t really take it seriously. But a few weeks ago it got really bad. I would wake up around 4am every morning and could go back to sleep because my back was hurting so much. It was kind of productive for a while (you can get a lot done between 4-6am) but after a while it was just really annoying. So I went back to my favorite Physio Therapist and she told me I had sprained a Vertebra a while back and it healed kind of weird hence the pain. It’s actually not that bad though. When she said sprained vertebra I already saw myself sitting in a wheelchair but turns out a couple of massages and some stretching would fix me.

I’m still having some issues with my back but it’s getting better and I hope after a couple more physio sessions I will be back to normal. These types of injuries are apparently typical for runners, especially those that have a tendency to overdo it a little (like going from fat girl to marathon runner in 12 months). But the good news is, I don’t have to give up running altogether, I just should try to limit it a little and do some lower impact exercising as well. At the moment I’m just walking about 4-5km 3-4 times a week but once the back is alright again I will try to get back into running.

However, I also just bought a bike! Biking is much less stressful for joints etc. so for people who have injuries like sprained knees and vertebra it’s a good alternative to running. Growing up in Germany I always had a bike and used it a lot (before I had a driver’s license that is) and I kind of like the idea of being able to just bike somewhere on the weekend. The only problem is that Auckland is quite hilly (especially compared to the area of Germany where I grew up) so I’m not sure how the biking thing is really gonna work long-term. So I decided for now I’m just gonna buy a cheap used bike of Trademe (NZ’s answer to e-bay – for the none-Kiwis among you). Buying a bike over the internet is not quite that simple, especially getting the size right. And in fact, the bike I bought is a little bit small. But it will do for now and if I really do get into biking I can invest into a better, larger one.

So basically my workouts right now consist of gym session, some walking and now some biking. That’s all good, but also kind of boring. I need a challenge, some sort of goal to work towards.

Truth is, I already have a pretty good idea what that challenge could be. But I’m not gonna tell you yet ;-) Just building up some excitement. Maybe you want to guess….

I will write another post in the next few days to let you know I’m up to and why, but right now I’m running out of time (I’m still at the office and need to get ready for another meeting - and just in case your thinking ‘is she allowed to write blog posts during working hours’, let me just tell you that regular working hours ended about 20 minutes ago and I’m still here because I’ve got a late meeting with some people in India at 6.30). So, got to go now, but will fill you in on my new plans soon…