Injury - O no!

Or: why do I seem to start all over again, every single year?

How does a cricket injury to my hand bring all of my other exercise and activity to a screaming halt? I'm not sure I understand, except that it has - a broken finger and a sprained wrist mean that my fitness bootcamp was a complete write-off even before the holidays, and if I try running, they just ache. 

And now I'm feeling scratchy and want to get back into things for several reasons:

- I have had a very enjoyable holiday season, and I need to counter-balance that (we all know what I mean...)

- I want to feel strong and healthy, and I just don't.

- I am lucky to have been selected to roadtest some new shoes but they arrived three days after I broke myself, and I haven't been fulfilling my part of that bargain #asicsroadtest #gt2000roadtest #newshoes - more about this in my next post!

- I need to score some runs before the pink small person pulls ahead again, so I need to be fit for the resumption of play!

All this means that I have been doing a bit of self-review, again. It seems to happen every summer holiday/New Year, which I suppose is appropriate for the season and I think it is a good thing, as just carrying on with stuff doesn't get me anywhere and so, in the same way as I have the last two years, I am starting over with my health and fitness plan. I have a few different things to think about:

• What are my goals? What do I want or need to do, short-term, long-term, or in events?
• What is my purpose? And how is this different from goals, or, are my goals actually helping my bigger purpose be fulfilled?
• What things are actually good for me? And if they are good for me, how and why do I keep breaking myself, and how can I stop doing that?
• How on earth can I fit everything in? I have work goals for this year (last year having been pretty average) and family focuses for this year (last year having been very challenging!) and study goals for this year (not to leave everything until the last minute but actually see what my best work looks like) and 5 acres to keep landscaping and developing. Am I mad? (short answer, yes, probably)

So, a bit of thinking. 

I need to remember first of all my overall purpose. (This is because I am a big picture person, and if I don't know what that is, the rest won't make sense.) I want to be fit and healthy, particularly the healthy bit, so that when things do get challenging, as they always seem to, I can be resilient. This is the most important thing, and what gets me motivated to keep doing stuff.

Then, goals. I am going to do the Whitianga half with Mum in May; that is, she will walk it as her first half since being sick, and I will finally break that 2 hour mark. And Nicholette has talked me into doing a full marathon - the Queenstown one, to make it worth it - as a bucket list event, which is November-ish. Whenever she talks about it I get all enthusiastic, and when I stop and think about it, I wonder if I'm mad, but there we go, it is going to happen. 

That's goals. I don't need too many because looking quickly at that fourth bullet point, I will be doing plenty of other things too. But at the same time, they are good solid goals that I will need to work towards and commit to, which is important, to make them real.

I think the main thing I need to do a bit of reflecting on is injury, and prevention. The current one was a sheer fluke, but I did notice last year that I seemed to have a lot of little muscle pulls and several injuries in my fingers and hands (I can write really well left-handed now!). This is not really ideal, not least because it is hard to be consistent in anything - and because as a teacher, I do actually need to be able to write!

Or maybe, to rephrase that positively - what is good for me? 

Hmm, that one I don't know. I'll get back to you...