Injuries...

Injuries are probably those most annoying part of any physical activity. Oddly enough mine is not through running which could be a blessing in disguise. My key sport has always been volleyball and with that I have had a reoccurring knee injury that has once again got the best of me. My somewhat well known disease is called Osgood-Schlatter. It is an irritation of the patellar ligament and is usually found in young adolescents, such as myself, from over conditioning running or jumping. In my case though, its jumping.

X-ray showing stress
 of tendon/growth-plate

How will this affect me? Well it is recommended that I give most physical activity a rest for a little while which means I have to put running on hold. First, because it can be extremely painful, and second, I don't want to put my knees under any more stress because i'm going to be needing them for a while. Hopefully I will bounce back quickly as I have been enjoying running and want to get back into as soon as possible.

Staying Diciplined

Evaluating my second week of running I am rather disappointed that I have not been as disciplined as the first. I found myself very busy after school which is when Ive been running, along with that this past weekend was Easter and I found myself filling up on delicious food instead of keeping a focused mindset on my running. I think I have a solution, I've decided I need to experiment with running during different times of the day. This might mean getting up much earlier than I already do which will prove difficult but I think it might be a good way to start the day, my only other thought is that I like to run after school because of the energy boost I receive for my evening activities. I will have to compare and then weight the pros and cons to these running times so that I can remained disciplined and continue to enjoy my runs.

Starting Off

After much preparation and hope for the snow to melt my project is officially underway and going well. This past week I pulled out my brand new asics sneakers and began running on my own for the first time. So far I have not worked out an exact schedule, I've simply been running as much as possible. I have chosen to run after school or in the evening and I will continue to experiment which time of the day best suits me for running. Being a busy person with school, music and sports it is not always easy to find time to run which is why I often found it difficult to stay disciplined when I felt like 'just not doing it' but after pushing myself to go I feel greatly rewarded afterwards.
I began running by walking my first mile to get my muscles warmed up and blood flowing, from there I ran to a certain point as a goal I had set. From there I simply added on a greater distance every time I ran if I felt I could. I have been pleasantly surprised with my progress this early into running as well as I am setting a great pace and never tiring.
I am very glad I chose running as my project as I am already seeing results in other every day things. After a long day at school I am often very tired and will decided to relax or take a nap to 'recharge'. Instead if I force myself to run shortly after coming home I will find a surge of energy to finish off my day. I have also noticed that running is a great way to relive any kind of stress. Listening to music while running definitely helps, but after a solid run I feel very relaxed and I have a fresh mind for the rest of the afternoon/evening. It is also great for cross training, I am an avid volleyball player and I have noticed some improvements in my play and I have my running to thank for it. As I continue to run i'm excited to see what other benefits running will give me, and I hope it continues to go as well as it has.

Obstacles

Living in Winnipeg can be a bit of a drag sometimes. We are midway through March and mother nature has decided to surprise us with a little blizzard. My plan was to begin running soon, however the streets are once again full of snow. This puts me in a interesting situation. I'm thinking I will need to begin going to an indoor track so that I do not fall behind schedule. I am also realizing that I will need to work around three big trips that I am going on this semester. Our school Mexico trip, a band/art trip to  New York as well as volleyball nationals in Edmonton. For me these trips offer nice little break ups in the case that I might be struggling, I just hope they do not set me back like the snowfall already has. At this point I really need spring to arrive.

Intro

Howdy y'all,
My name is Colin and this is a blog for my passion project. What is a passion project you might say?
Well this semester in grade 11 Bible class we have been assigned to either produce a product or accomplish goals that we think we can become passionate about and achieve in the remainder of the school year. Perhaps you have clued in and already discovered what my project is about... If you guessed running, gold star for you.
Yes, I want to start running and to be honest it's something I've never really enjoyed or been very good at, but I'm feeling the challenge and there's no turning back now. Now I've always been a pretty athletic kid, but I think sometimes I fall under the 'lazy' category, through the goals ill be setting I hope to improve on my overall cardio so that I can feel more satisfied with my athletic ability and my general health by establishing a solid habit.
Throughout the semester I hope to not only to become a stronger, faster runner, but I also plan to educate myself on the benefits that running has on the human body.
In my blog I hope to share with you why running is important, some helpful videos, running playlists and of course my progress.
Wish me luck!