{"id":10729,"date":"2015-01-24T19:13:29","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T03:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medicalfitnessnetwork.org\/?p=10729"},"modified":"2021-07-01T16:29:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T23:29:35","slug":"chronic-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/all-mfn\/chronic-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chronic Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Suzi Fevens, from her blog Confessions of a Fitness Instructor<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found myself become more comfortable talking about my chronic pain and problems revolving around fibromyalgia, but there is a part of that struggle that up until now I\u2019ve only mentioned to one, maybe two people. And that is the chronic struggle I have with myself everyday.<\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t mean the struggle to get up and be active, at this point that is a given. I\u2019m not even talking about the struggle to sleep (which I\u2019m so happy to report I seem to have under control these days!), I\u2019m talking about the chronic struggle to achieve.<\/p>\n

Achieve what you might ask? Anything. Everything. I gave up running when I became a busier fitness instructor, I felt like the risk of injury from running wasn\u2019t worth it since I need working legs to make a living. And as the years went by I found that removing that form of cross training ended up being more of a liability and left me more open to injury due to muscle imbalance, than any running injury I have sustained to date.<\/p>\n

So a couple years ago I got back into running. And with \"\"<\/a>running comes races. And with races comes results. And with results come my want to strive to do better. To cut my marathon times, to improve my 5 and 10K times. To become a better runner. But as someone with chronic pain, and who exercises for a living, there is a often a fine line between exercising enough to help reduce pain, and exercising too much to make the inflammation and pain worse, and then of course the dreaded return to over training<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m careful not to over train these days. If anything, I under train (a lot) for races. Which is obviously not ideal, but I do have the good fortune of having a career that keeps my aerobic capacity in check so I can swing races with less training than some.<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to my chronic struggle to talk myself in or out of doing more.<\/p>\n

I see Krysten\u00a0training for her Ironman in the fall and think, I should do something like that. And then I think, that\u2019s crazy. Not only because of my fibromyalgia, but because I\u2019m already pushing the box as far as how much I can do before I fall back into that over training area.<\/p>\n

I think, I should run, even if it\u2019s 10 minutes twice during the week. That short investment of time would be enough to really help me with increasing my over all speed. But then I think, I\u2019m alrady exercising 2 (or more) times today, do I really need to do that to my body?<\/p>\n

The answer is no, but the answer is also that I want to.<\/p>\n

I want to participate in triathlons and maybe even an Ironman (half!). I\u2019m not a good swimmer and I don\u2019t enjoy biking, but that\u2019s because I don\u2019t know how to shift gears properly, and I\u2019m not a strong swimmer. And one thing I know is when you find something difficult, that is all the more reason to do it \u2013 so you can get better.<\/p>\n

\"2014-06-04This past week I read Carole Staveley\u2019s book Not Lying Down \u2013 How I Conquered Years of Pain to Triumph at the Finish Line<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/center>Carole overcame years of chronic pain to become not only a triathlete, but an Ironman. Something I\u2019ve long respected and dreamed of doing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s when I read books like Carole\u2019s, see Krysten\u2019s posts, \u00a0read about Jamie\u2019s triumph as she finishes her first 100mile race\u00a0, and watch Jess get ready for her first figure competition<\/a>\u00a0it brings all of those feeling back to the forefront of my mind.<\/p>\n

I frigging want to set a push goal and go after it. I want to do things I\u2019ve never done or thought I could do.<\/p>\n

But I should just be happy with where I already am. I have a lung condition and a chronic illness, I never know when I\u2019m going to have a bad day. But nobody else does either. And it\u2019s never the things that you think will slow you don\u2019t it\u2019s the things that blindside you at the last moment that create the biggest set backs.<\/p>\n

So I should just do it. I should just go for my goals.<\/p>\n

But I need to take care of myself. I need to rest. I need to do more yoga and stretching, not more high intensity exercise that makes my muscles and joints even more angry.<\/p>\n

But I still want to do it\u2026I want to show my body (and let\u2019s be honest, everyone) that a diagnosis of fibromyalgia doesn\u2019t have to end your dreams. That being told my your doctor that your lung has a weak spot and you shouldn\u2019t go on an airplane because the cabin pressure could make it collapse.<\/p>\n

But I should be happy where I am. I already do more than most others in my shoes would ever think of doing.<\/p>\n

And it continues. All of the time in my head.<\/p>\n

It really does go on forever, and there never seems to be a winning side. I might decide not to set lofty goals one day, the next day I\u2019m trying to decide on my next race.<\/p>\n

The struggle continues. And I see no end in sight.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want my health to define me. I want to define me on my own terms. But sometimes that isn\u2019t wise. Is this one of those times? I don\u2019t know. But I can tell you this much, I haven\u2019t ruled out running a full marathon in the fall\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

Read more from Suzi at her blog, Confessions of a Fitness Instructor
\n<\/a>“My blog is a place for me to share my struggles and accomplishments. \u00a0A place to provide a voice for others living with chronic health conditions to show that we can still live an active life. That our quality of living can be improved by eating well and exercising”<\/em> -Suzi Feven<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve found myself become more comfortable talking about my chronic pain and problems revolving around fibromyalgia, but there is a part of that struggle that up until now I\u2019ve only mentioned to one, maybe two people. And that is the chronic struggle I have with myself everyday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":10732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,72],"tags":[54,25,134,198],"class_list":["post-10729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-mfn","category-conditions","tag-exercise","tag-fibromyalgia","tag-fitness","tag-fitness-professionals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30302,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10729\/revisions\/30302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}