The “Fire Hydrant” Effect
I love to play games. Especially when it comes to a challenging task. I also love simplicity, and taking apart difficult things and putting them back together in a cleaner, more simplified and functional fashion! I LOVE puzzles! And many of you know that I am and have been a long time lover of the RSNFG “Ridiculously Small No-Fail Goals” concept! This concept is all about making bigger tasks doable through small steps, but I digress…
I’ve been on a healing journey, and part of that journey has been about being able to get back to fitness that works well with my current health level (not my AGE, I don’t want to act my age) and will provide overall wellness so that I can continue doing all the crazy fun things I love to do! Part of that has been to accept that I have to start fresh and build back up to whatever will be best for my current state. I would LOVE to just go run 5 miles on the trails again, but I know that would result in immobility and injury the next day, so I’ve scratched that idea…instead I’m applying the Fire Hydrant Effect!
On the paved trails that I walk my “Diddles” (Radar), there are fire hydrants about every 300-500 feet…perfect for little jogging sprints! I walk about 3.5 miles on a particular trail, and on the day I decided to start this, I jogged “2 fire hydrant lengths” worth, the other times I just walked at my regular pace. To say that it was easy is an understatement…it was. And Radar thoroughly enjoyed the faster pace. AND, I felt the extra jogging the next day in the form of shin splints…I kid you not. Soooo humbling:)
The next walk I jogged 2 FH lengths worth again, and this time the next day I felt fine. Each walk, we increase our number of fire hydrant lengths worth and soon, I know that I’ll be able to do the entire 3.5 miles jogging. To slow down like this and to do this in small steps is NO small feat (pun intended) for me; because I’ve always loved running and it’s really really hard (did I share how hard it is?!?!) to slow down this way. But I know that if I try to do it at a faster pace (for example, jogging a mile on day 1) I will just injure myself, overdo it, and be back on the injured reserve list…not a place I want to visit again.
So I make sure that I take it, one Fire Hydrant Length at a time, to get their faster by going slower, and trusting that I’ll get to where I want to go. My fitness goal this year is to heal; fully, from the inside and out after a lifetime of pushing and overdoing. I’ll report back in a few months and let you know how “Buttery Goodness” (Radar) and I are doing on the trails, and how many Fire Hydrants we’ve accomplished, and what the state of health is!
I challenge you to choose your Fire Hydrant Length and share what you’re aspiring to do, and then touch base again at the end of May. Ready, Set, Go! Oh, and how many nicknames do YOU have for your pets? Radar is “Diddles”, “Softness Deluxe”, “Schnuz Butters”, “Buttery Goodness” and so many more 🙂