Motivation Monday: the grace edition

Ernest Hemingway wrote in “The Sun Also Rises” that a man goes broke “gradually, and then suddenly.” This is a little bit like what my return to normal activity has been like, both in terms of my wrist’s pre-surgery function and my body’s pre-surgery fitness.

Regular readers of this blog know that it’s been a long, long road back to any sense of normalcy—and that my recent gains have been anything but sudden. I spent weeks waiting, then a few more weeks working my butt off, so logically, any gains I’ve made are well-deserved.

Still, I couldn’t help but be amazed when I woke up last Tuesday and found that I’d gained maybe 10 or 20 degrees of motion in my wrist, seemingly overnight. That night, I ran without my splint for the first time. If this doesn’t sound like a big deal, emotionally or physically, imagine running with a bulky, unwieldy backpack. Now, imagine you are terrified that if you remove the backpack, a part of your body will shatter. I not only lost a physical impediment, but some emotional baggage, too.

I’d promised to give myself six weeks of training, the same amount of time I was barred from doing any cardio, since my first run “back” on March 23 before holding myself accountable for any sort of pace or distance expectations. Six weeks is tomorrow, May 4, and I’m choosing to view that time as building base mileage. The real training can start now. Here’s what’s motivating me to shift into the next gear:

• I had my first therapy session a week and a half ago. It was really, really rough, so I rewarded myself by buying expensive bath products. The cutesy message on these Philosophy bath goods: Grace. Perfect. My real goal is to handle the inevitable setbacks and frustrations of therapy and continuing my return to full activity with grace, and these will serve as a nice reminder of that goal.
• I’ve signed up for the ZOOMA Annapolis 10k on June 6! It’s a new, more scenic course, but promises the same wine tastings, spa treatments and other girlie treats at the post-race festival.  The weekend after, I will most likely be doing the Clifton Caboose 5K. I say “most likely” because even though my first attempt at swimming felt like I was working with a rake rather than a right arm, I still haven’t 100 percent ruled out the 1-Mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge Swim on June 14.
• Some new songs:  Death Cab for Cutie—Charming Man. Download this now, even if you’re not typically a fan of Death Cab; this Smiths cover is fantastic! Also try Jay-Z—Lucifer, and Cunnylinguists—Linguistics.

What’s motivating you this week?