Here’s What to Do if You Had a Tough Winter (Like I Did)!

Well, it wasn’t really a “tough” winter. Just a “different” winter!

I found myself a condo in Breckenridge, Colorado and stayed there the entire month of January to ski and work. Many of my friends thought I was there on vacation for the entire month. No, it was NOT a vacation. Just a change of scenery where I could do my writing and my work. Coincidentally, they had some  big mountains that had slippery white stuff all over them, so I could not resist fastening the two long planks to my boots so that I could easily glide downhill for a good part of every day!

Living in Breck for the month was great. It’s a very healthy lifestyle and most likely due to all of the skiing, I actually lost eight pounds or so.I loved every second of it!

That was January. When I got home back east a few strange things started happening to me. First of all, I took a pretty bad fall at a ski area in Pennsylvania (in an icy mogul field). Well, I didn’t think it was a bad fall at the time, but my right leg still does not feel perfect six weeks later. And not only am I dealing with a bum leg, but for some reason a few weeks ago all of the muscles in my body seemed to be aching. This aching really has had me puzzled. I imagined that I was coming down with some type of rare muscle disease and my skiing, running and backpacking days would be numbered. Very scary thought.

What I really think has been going on is that a low level virus just kind of decided to settle in my muscles. Every one of them. I don’t know why it picked me but it did.

The good news is that I think it’s going away. Every day it seems as though there is less and less pain.

Why am I telling you this? The main reason is for you to see that as much as I am into health and fitness, I want you to see that I too am nothing but a human being, vulnerable to any of the crazy stuff that life can throw at us.

But I also want to describe to you what I did during this tough time to help myself get through it.

First thing I did was to continue with my daily supplements that I take. As many of you know, I am not a big believer in taking tons of supplements and making the vitamin companies rich. But I do take a few every day. I am planning to describe these in a future article (very soon) so please look out for that.

Secondly I seriously minimized my weight training simply to give my muscles a chance to rest. I think rest is good. Sometimes I feel guilty not going to the gym but my brain was telling me to give it a rest.

I did keep up my walking and running program. I have a couple of races coming up in May and I felt it was important to keep up my aerobics as well as keeping my legs moving. I am desperately trying to stick to my rule of moving at least four miles at a time, although there were several times I had to limit my mileage to two or three.

I am now pretty confident that I am out of the woods with the worst of the pain and I am going to step up my mileage in order to prepare for the races I signed up for. I’ll be in San Francisco running the Bay to Breakers 12K on May 16 and then back in Baltimore running the Maryland Half Marathon on May 23.

Remember friends, I am not a fast runner. One of the reasons I am still able to run, when many fast, elite runners tend to get injured and stop, is because I have been slow and steady my entire life. I simply keep covering the distance that keeps me healthy! That’s it! So please, when you get out to run or walk, you do not have to be competitive. This is a lifestyle that I want you to be able to keep up until you are 101 years old!

By the way, looking ahead, I am signed up for the 2010 Chicago Marathon which will take place on 10/10/10! I ran it in 2009 and it was one of the coolest experiences in my life. I understand they just closed registration because the maximum of 45,000 runners has been reached. So that’s why I gotta keep moving, even if I am not feeling 100%.

What about you? How was your winter? Did you gain a few pounds? Are you ready to start getting back into better shape. I know you can do it my friend.

Please remember these two words: never quit!

I am David Madow (The Seven Day Guy) and I look forward to talking to you soon. In the meantime, please feel free to ask me any questions right here on this page or email me at rundrdave@gmail.com.