I don’t know what to do. On Monday I had a stroke. I’m 40 years old and I had a stroke. What am I supposed to do? I don’t know if this is how everyone feels… but these are the thoughts that keep running through my head:

• I feel like a California seismologist, I’m just waiting for the “Big One”
• Phrases like “I’ll get that next time” terrifies me because I don’t know if there will be a next time.
• I can be fine one minute and then struck with fear and start crying for no reason at any moment.
• Sometimes I feel like nothing happened, and then I remember… Then I get sad that I’m forever going to be a “survivor”
• Sometimes I think “I’m not going to let this beat me, I can rise above it and be better than ever” but then I wonder if I really can, I mean physical able to.
• I felt fine during the stroke and the 2 days in the hospital after, then I have felt like crap. I find that now I get winded and have to stop walking on the way to the car from the train. I feel super wiped out now too. I’m not sure if it’s the stroke after effects or maybe the medication.
• When the doctors say rest and take it easy, I don’t know what they mean.
• I know that worrying about what happens next isn’t going to change what might happen in the future… but I still can help it.

So I’m getting ready for a 5K “Fun” run on Thanksgiving.  My husband and I ran the turkey trot last year, but I was about 20 pounds lighter than I am today.  Given that I will be carrying around some extra weight, I decided to start my training early.  I started with one of the Couch to 5K apps that you can get for your phone.  I run on a treadmill so I don’t need one of the GPS enabled tracking apps to track distance, time or calories.  I progressed pretty well through weeks 1 and 2.  Week 3 was a little daunting, and I completely shut down when I saw what week 4 had in store for me.  Then I hurt my shoulder and then my neck/back, so I had to take some time off.

This week I decided to get back into the swing of things and get back to a training plan, but the C25K just wasn’t working for me so I decided to take my own approach to getting ready for the race.  This is by no means a Dr. approved program, and it shouldn’t be taken as such. I did however discus the training plan with my personal trainer, and at least he thought it was a good plan. It only takes 30 minutes for a session and I’m trying to get in three a week, but I will more realistically will only be able to fit in two.  I also throw in some light weight training to keep everything balanced.

Duration (in minutes)	Activity	Description
5	Warm up walk	Walk, 0% incline
5	Warm up run	Jog 1 MPH faster than walk, at least 3% incline
2	Rest walk	Walk, 0% incline
2	Interval 1	Jog .1 MPH faster than Warm-up run, 0% inline
2	Rest walk	Walk, 0% incline
2	Interval 2	Jog .1 MPH faster than Interval 1, 0% inline
2	Rest walk	Walk, 0% incline
2	Interval 3	Jog .1 MPH faster than Interval 2, 0% inline
2	Rest walk	Walk, 0% incline
2	Interval 4	Jog .1 MPH faster than Interval 3, 0% inline
1	Interval 5	Run 1 MPH faster than Warm up run, 0% incline
2	Cool Down Walk	Walk, 0% incline
1	Cool Down Walk	Walk, .5 mph slower than Rest walk

In one day I was able to increase my distance and my calories burned. On Monday, 22 Oct, I logged 1.64 miles and 296 calories. On Tuesday 23 Oct, I was able to get in 1.8 miles and burned 335 calories.  Once I get my warm-up walk up to 3.5 MPH I’ll revamp this intro program to create an intermediate program (which I will post once I go over it with my trainer).  If you have questions or comments, please let me know.