Running and starting over.

It's been almost a year since I found out I had cancer.  During that year I crashed on the couch and pretty much did nothing.  I tried to keep up with walking after chemo quickly sapped any energy I had for running.  Things just went further sideways about 2 months in when I developed a pretty standard side effect - mouth sores - and couldn't eat for about 10 days.

With radiation, I did my best to avoid aggravating already sensitive areas and avoided most exercise as well, knowing it would further affect my ability to get started again.

Now, I'm resurrecting this blog in an effort to get back at it.  I'm verbally committed to a couple of races for 2016 and it's time to get my plus-sized ass back off the couch.

First up, I'm back on fitbit.  I actually had to replace that sucker after I learned a 2 year old fitbit does not like hot tubs.  Odd considering prior to this, it went everywhere with me - shower, swimming pool, probably even a lake or two and I think it may have even had a dip in the ocean.  Maybe it was just time for it to go.

So, a bit about me - I'm overweight, probably considered officially obese by BMI charts.  I wear plus sized clothes and my first goal is too get the heck out of those plus sized clothes.  So this blog will be a mixture of posts about running, cross training, issues for the plus sized (woman) runner, and probably the odd picture of my garden, pets, or travel.   Like this picture of me kayaking on Lake Mead near Vegas.

Actually, stay tuned, I'll comment on that in my next post because as someone who is overweight, I worried about doing something like that and I'm so glad I finally did it.

Back to starting over.  I've tried to pick up running again, but I think I did it too close to the treatments and my body hadn't recovered yet.  To be clear, at the end of chemo, I was neutropenic (low white blood cells), anemic (low red cells), had low platelets and ended up stopping chemo early as a reaction to the chemo caused the skin on my hands to start peeling off - a bit like a sun burn that just got worse and spread week after week.  So in the days and weeks post chemo, my body was in no shape to start running again and even a learn to run program was too much.

About learn to run programs - I started with the plan at coolrunnings.  This time I'm doing more of a casual approach - run until I'm tired, walk to recover, run until I'm tired.

Prior to cancer, my last training run was a 9 mile run at pretty much the best pace I'd ever completed.  It was a month before a 1/2 marathon I'd signed up for and had to miss out on due to the surgery.  I started treatments the day after my friends ran that half.

Anyway, that's me in a nutshell.  I'm back and getting started again.  Running and weight loss will be key in avoiding a recurrance.