I have been faithful to the running plan, going 3 times a week for a couple of months now.  But I am now stuck at a point that I can’t get past…because of leg pain, because of the heat and humidity, because my asthma is flaring…I have so many excuses.  But the truth is that I spent a lot of time researching last night and came to the realization that running may need to be put on hold until I get some more weight off to save my joints.  I am in pain almost all of the time now, in both legs, from the knee all the way down to the foot.  I read a lot of websites that told me pain like that is trying to tell me something and that I need to listen to my body.  I did some serious soul searching over it, but in the end I concluded that my weight is causing this joint pain and that the best thing to do *right now* is to work harder on getting that weight off so I’ll be in a better position to pick running back up.

So I’ve formulated a new plan…30 minutes of elliptical (or some other form of cardio) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  I may run some of those days, but I need to limit that until I see a good weight change.  Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays will be yoga and strength training.  I’ve got the Wii Fit for this and am hoping I can afford some more of the Wii fitness type games soon so I can switch it up a little bit.  And once I’ve hit my first weight loss goal (I’m about 10 pounds away now.) then I’ll go back to running C25K.

I admit I shed a few tears over this.  I feel like I’m giving up, even though I know I’m not.  The good news is that I am now in a good routine of working out and I don’t think it will be hard to keep it up.  I’m hoping that in a month or so I can say I’ve hit my first weight loss goal and can get back to it!

Filed under: Couch to 5K, Health, Me Stuff