Jack of all Trades, Master of None

In my personal life I have taken on that roll.  I love so many crafts.  I love to quilt, so I will start quilting. I’m in my glory and gung ho to quilt forever.  I make plans and forge full steam ahead.  But then a few days….or a few weeks…..or maybe even a few months later and I get bored with quilting and something else catches my eye. Cross stitch!  Yes, I LOVE cross stitching.  So I immerse myself in that for a few hours, days …….   Until I get bored or until something else catches my eye….oh my word, Scrapbooking.  So much Fun! There are so many things….and eventually I do come around full cycle and pick up the quilting again, or pick up the cross stitch or crochet.  However,   I flit from hobby to hobby.  It could be a lack of attention span. (ha ha ha)    Because of this, I call myself a Jack of All Trades, Master of None.  I don’t really ‘master’ anything.  I dabble with lots.  I have a very good working knowledge of a lot of different things. I’m a true renaissance woman!  Sometimes that bothers me, it would be awesome to excel at one thing versus being good at a lot.  But that’s how I roll.  I can’t change my nature, my personality nor who I am. 

 

Earlier this year, I started to really pour myself into exercise.  I was riding, running, zumba-ing, playing tennis with my husband (or at least doing something that WE called playing tennis), walking with a friend.  I was doing so much and I was loving every second of it. (cue the grim reaper music) Then I had the dreaded foot issue crop up in late June.  I was advised of a few options for exercise.  The main options on the table were to use an elliptical, ride a bike or go swimming.   Swimming was off the table as a regular thing as you need access to a pool…and in fact I’ve not been able to swim at all.  I had grand plans to get to the gym to use the elliptical, but that didn’t happen either.  I did however get on my bike.  And I struggled to maintain any continuity with biking.  (granted, I had some blows during that time…in the form of hurling my guts up one week….some emotional issues another….but still).  I was perplexed.  I had been exercising religiously and all of a sudden it became a struggle.  I couldn’t understand it.

 

This week it clicked.  I went back to zumba on Wednesday night.  My foot did fine.  There were a few times in the choreography that my foot shot pain, but mostly it was a dull ache….so anytime those steps came up, I just marched in place.  I pushed it further and tried to run on Thursday night.  I was absolutely giddy with excitement when I was heading out.   The foot is giving me a bit of grief today and the jury is out if I’ll be able to restart running on a regular basis….but I learned a lesson about myself.  While I get bored and like variety in my crafts and hobbies……I am the same way with my exercise.  Variety is the key to my success.  I LOVE mybike.  I love the wind in my face and the sound of the wheels on the pavement (or if I’m on my trek the sound of the wheels crunching the pebbles on the canal). I enjoy it.   But doing it every day with no other variety added in doesn’t work for me.  Because you see, I love running. I love the feeling of pushing myself and the little sweat rivulets that run down my back and the feeling of my feet hitting the pavement, the slow moving scenery and the way my mind works when I run. (it does take a totally different path then when I’m biking…both are good….just different for some reason).  Zumba is immensely fun…maybe no longer as high intensity as I need, but still just fun and still a good workout.  It’s a social hour for me.  It’s a place where I can get my sweat on but also interact with people.   It is exercise, but totally different for me.   Tennis…same thing, good but different.  That is husband time….it’s still moving and active.  I still work up a sweat (I don’t enjoy that sweat as much as I really do love the running sweat) but it’s time to spend with my husband.  Walking. My walks with Sherry are Sacred.  Don’t mess with our walk!   Variety.  I would still treasure my walks with sherry, but if I only walked every day, I would quickly grow bored.  If I played tennis everyday I would quickly grow bored. One activity does not work for me.   I in fact admire people that can do the same thing day in and day out….but that’s just not something I can do….and I just realized that it is not only in crafts…but it’s in my exercise…I need variety!

 

On that same note.  I may always be a jack of all trades with some of these crafts. I’m ok with that. It’s good to dabble in and know a bit about a lot.  But I’m not going to be a jack of all trades with my exercise.  I am mastering the road bike.  My body doesn’t ache on a regular basis (for days afterward too) when I ride. Yeah, I have days where I feel a little stiffness or whatnot, but not the God awful aches that I had when I first started.   I still am not very fast and hills still are excruciating….but I’m getting better and I WILL master it!  Running.  I was running about a 11 ½ to12 minute mile when I was injured.  That was still slower than where I wanted to be but it was miles faster then where I was in January.  I will figure out this foot thing and I will get back to running and I will conquer!  

 

Hmmm…maybe I really SHOULD think more seriously about a multi-disciplinarian sport such as a…..wait for it……..a triathlon…….

 

 

So today…my heel aches a bit…I was going to leave it un-taped today (for a break) but I was walking and it was aching quite a bit so I decided to tape it to give that extra support.  It really does seem to ease it up.   Someone asked me in my messages what is this KT tape.  It is an athletic tape that is super sticky…and super stretching.  When applied correctly (different applications for different muscles and tendons) it relieves the pressure of movement and stress upon those muscles and tendons.  I usually forget it’s on my foot (unlike braces and wraps that start to annoy, itch and dig into me and cause me to feel like that part of my body is a furnace after a few hours).  It is touted to be something that stays on for a few days.  I’ve found that I have to replace it within 24 hours…..but in fairness, that could be due to the fact that it is on my foot…so it’s getting more use, friction and wear and tear versus a shoulder or a knee.  I have been able to wear the sleeping foot thing at night even with my foot taped.  It really is a cool product.  Is it the placebo affect?   Who knows….but I really do sincerely believe it helps. 

 

So I bought new running shoes and used them yesterday (they are spiffy looking too) and they rubbed a blister.  GRRRRR  Hoepfully it’s just a ‘break them in’ issue!