My Journey With Health And Fitness – Back To Training

I got a panicked call yesterday for the organization where I participate in the Community Volunteer Income Tax Clinic each year during tax time. The daughter of an elderly gentleman came in with the summary of his 2025 income tax and advised that according to the Canada Revenue Agency his taxes had not been electronically filed. This in turn meant he was no longer eligible for the universal dental plan. I was asked if I could resolve this based on the information that had been supplied and I assured them it wasn’t a problem. It took me more time to get in touch with the daughter to provide the information I needed to ensure he got the Provincial rental rebate than it did for me to complete the forms and get them filed. To be on the safe side I even provided the daughter with a pdf showing the taxes were filed and gave the confirmation number. I know taxes and issues with the CRA can be daunting to some people but hell, I’ve successfully battled the IRS which is a whole different ball game.

For the past few weeks I have been doing red light therapy on my foot and ankle. This is the foot where I partially detached a ligament and tore 2 tendons. Then when it was almost back to normal I twisted it while in Mexico and that really set me back. I have a friend who swears by red light therapy and after 6 weeks of healing and still having a ways to go to be back to pre-Mexico I decided what the hell, why not give it a try. I read up on it some and studdies have shown that it can promote healing, reduce swelling and alleviate pain. I was a bit skeptice but the unit wasn’t that expensive so no real loss if it didn’t work.

This is not the only thing I had done to promote healing. I have consistently done exercises given to me by my physio therapist when I first injured my foot. I also have ensured that whenever walking or doing a fitness class that I wear compression socks and my brace. All of that had gotten me close to healed but I needed to cross the finish line so on to the red light therapy. Well guess what, it seems to have worked. I have next to no pain in my foot or ankle and there is only minimum swelling (that is likely do to the fact I have chronic tendonosis).

I decided since this seems to have been so successful it was time to do some training so that I can get back to running. Today was my first training day as I know it would be stupid to try to do even a 5km after not doing a run in months. And so out I went with a 15 minute walk before starting to run. I tried a split 1 minute run/4 minute walk but it was quickly obvious that it was too easy. So instead I opted for 8 minute run/5 minute walk. A few of those and I realized nothing hurt so for the last 1km I just ran. I was surprised that it wasn’t bad at all.

I do want to be clear I am not doing a hard run. I am making sure to stay in areas where it is flat and I am not at all concerned about my speed (ok, I admit my pace is slower than what it should be but hey, 1st training run in a long time). I am going to work on endurance and then speed.

I calculate I probably ran a total of 3km this morning and I felt pretty good. I’m going to try again on Thursday, assuming there is no issues with my foot. If that run goes well Saturday I am going to walk to the beach and try a full 5km. If all of this goes well I’ll be back to running a consistent 3 times per week while building back up to doing a 10km at least once per week.

Yep, I am definitely back to training.