Setbacks

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. - Winston Churchill

Never, never, never give up.  - Winston Churchill

Maintaining my healthy lifestyle has been going very well the last few months.  I have been running/wogging regularly and eating well.  That is until......*cough*cough*cough*.  I'm not sure where it came from really, but the day after my weekly visit to Town Lake, I began coughing.  It started out as just a slight tickle in my throat and by the end of the week, I was losing sleep and had sore abs from hacking so much.  Needless to say, I decided to take a break from my workouts for the rest of the week in hopes that the irritating cough would go away.  It didn't.  Aside from a missed day of work (I hate missing work because of cooties), I had to visit the doctor so I could try to nip this illness in the bud.  

I became very annoyed that this cough and congestion was keeping me from doing one of the things that I love most - running.   This happened to me in November of last year when I got bronchitis that turned into walking pneumonia.  Then at the end of December, after FINALLY getting over my illness, I slipped on some water on my parent's tiled kitchen floor and sprained my ankle.  That took a couple of months to heal well enough to allow me to run on it (I still have to use kinesio tape for it if I plan on doing more than a few miles to give it a little extra stability).  My brain started to question whether or not I was fighting a losing battle.  As my dad sometimes says "I feel like I am swimming against the current".    Having to endure one set back after another gets really old and really discouraging after a while.  It was making me wonder why I was even bothering if I keep running into all of these setbacks.  I was on the verge of throwing my hands up in the air and yelling " I GIVE UP".    
 

Then I thought that maybe this was the universe's way of testing me to see just how badly I want to run.  I decided to turn this situation around and make it into a challenge for myself.  Maybe, just maybe, setbacks are a gift in disguise.  If we didn't have to put in extra effort to reach our goals, would we actually appreciate them as much?   We all encounter roadblocks as we make our way through life.  Where we go and how we get past those blocks is up to us.  We can choose to lay down or we can get up, dust off and continue to move forward on our path.  I choose to move forward.  True, I may not be able to run right now because I can't breathe deeply without  busting out into a coughing fit but I sure as hell can eat healthy, get plenty of rest and do a less rigorous type of exercise in the meantime.  Doing those things will keep me on track towards reaching the fitness goals I have set for myself.  The way I look at it, there are bound to be plenty of obstacles (both mental and physical) during a 50 mile race and there is no way I am going to lay down on the course.  I'm not about to let a cough set me back.  So this week, I'm going to keep my goal in mind every time I get frustrated with this stupid cough.  I will think about what I CAN do rather than what I can't do.  Soon, this cough will be a thing of the past but my decision to not give up will be with me every time I hit the trail.  

Happy Trails,

Valeka