Ninja Safety

I think I may need to be protected from myself. This (looong) weekend was spent hurting myself waaaayyy too often! I ended up with two massive cuts (and by massive I mean one kind of bled and the other was in an annoying location where it just perpetually keeps getting hurt). I stubbed my toe, broke three nails, got a nice welt from the jump rope, went on a date that was less than thrilling AND even had a dream in which I was super upset (mostly because I woke up to find out that it was just a dream!). Not even safe in my sleep?! Honestly?!?!?

So today, I'm thinking about Ninja Safety. How do you keep yourself safe as a running ninja and how much of that safety can be controlled? Even better, is it ok to rely on someone else to keep you safe? hmmmm....go ahead take a moment. See if you even understand my question and what I mean. Another second? ok. ........ ......... .........

So running can in fact be dangerous to your health. Do too much too fast and you could get injured and not accomplish what you set out to do (which for us, is the half marathon). However, take your time and not push yourself enough and you end up running only two miles the rest of your life. You should warm up, run in your comfort zone, stretch afterwords and when you're ready for another run increase your distance by 10%. Then repeat...warm up, run, stretch, increase. Warm up, run, stretch, increase...each week. This works great because you know what your goal is and each week you can actually feel yourself getting stronger and more conditioned to running. Sometimes the warm up seems longer, sometimes the stretching isn't enough, but you always know that you are getting closer to your goal. And you always know that you have yourself to either blame or congratulate for getting out there each week and warming up, running, stretching. Just you...no one else.

So why do it this way? Because if your muscles aren't used to going the distance they will put up a fight and cramp, strain or pull. All to give you a warning that you are doing too much too soon. You kind of want to trick your body into going faster and further than you have ever gone before by being sneaky and adding up little by little to the amount of running you are doing. And when you are done you get a shiny medal :) yey! Well, bring it back to my current thought on feeling safe in a relationship...or looking for someone that makes you feel safe, someone that you can trust, I guess that's what it's called. Trust.

I think I sprained a muscle. That big one involved in your cardiovascular health. Yea, you know which one. And if you don't, then open up a book (don't google it, use a book). See I was training; I warmed up, and increased the amount of effort I was putting into things on a regular consistent basis, even felt like I had conquered some serious issues and done all I could to keep myself in the safe zone. The only thing lacking was a goal, a destination or even the assurance that my training was on track. What was missing the most was a true sense of safety. It was a mess! You can't work towards a wishy washy goal. And you can recover...I'm sure you can... well I'm hoping you can...I have slight inkling that you should be able to....anyway I'm SURE you can! So...less than thrilling date, I'm sorry, but I'm in no shape for a full marathon. I think I'll tackle the half!

Running Ninjas, today we tackle greenlake. All of it! I am hoping that I am not pushing them to do too much too soon, because I want them to trust me and I want them to reach their goal, in a safe way....in a way that allows them to actually run across the finish line. So even though I can't protect myself...from myself...lol... I can show these girls how to push themselves and trust them to put their effort forth and warm up, run and stretch as we work towards our goal! Meanwhile, I am going to have to figure out how to fix my sprained muscle and identify a better and improved Ninja Safety protocol for the future success of a Yasmin.