Bad behaviour

Gosh, I hope none of my medical team come across this. If they do I'm going to be in for the mother of all bollockings....

But I just had to share...

JUST BEEN FOR A RUN!

WOOP WOOP!!

Oh my days it was amazing. Brilliant. Amazing. Brilliant. L O V E D.   I T.

I stopped running in September, part way through my second chemo cycle. I got a stinking cold, which lasted for 3 weeks, and then it was downhill from there. Chemo side effects, coughs and infections. I managed one 3k run in December after my last chemo, but that was all. Then I had surgery in January and since then I have been banned from running. I checked with my surgeon again this week and I am still completely forbidden from running. Absolutely, categorically, 100% banned.

But! But! But! You see, the thing is I've been desperate to go for a run for so long now. Desperate! I love it! Plus, it is good for your health, and it also reduces your risk of recurrence of breast cancer. And... I know people generally don't like to talk about this, but what if there's a zombie apocalypse? Eh? What then? I need to keep my fitness levels up. How tragic would it be to survive cancer, only to get eaten by a zombie, just because I had not kept my fitness levels up by running? Even my surgeon can't argue with that.

And if all that is not enough to justify my complete and enthusiastic disobeying of strict orders.... it made me so HAPPY! Look at! This is me just after the run. #SorryNotSorry because it made me really happy!

(By the way, can I just say... literally no makeup. Those eyebrows are real!)

 

It wasn't my most impressive run in terms of either speed or distance, but to be fair - cancer, chemo, surgery, radiotherapy... Under the circumstances I reckon not bad!
 

The good news for my surgeon is I probably won't get many more runs in for a little while now. I'm 4 radiotherapy zaps in and already my skin is burnt and peeling. It's going to need some real care, and wearing layers of sports bras and going out running and sweating like a pig isn't going to help.

But never mind, that's life. Right now I'm just over the moon that I was able to go out and run today.

If I can beat cancer then I sure as hell can beat the 30 day abs challenge

Earlier this year my friend Amy did the 30 Day Abs Challenge. I told her she was insane. But then somehow I got in to a conversation about it at work, decided to do it myself, and got a lot of colleagues to join in! (Although as far as I know, the Incredible Charlotte was the only one to finish it! BIG CHEER FOR CHARLOTTE!)

It's not easy....

If I remember right, I got to Day 14. Then I was diagnosed with cancer and forgot all about it. Until now!

I've decided to start again. Surely if I can beat cancer, I can beat the 30 day abs challenge?! In reality it is going to take me more than 30 days to complete because of chemo. But I am absolutely determined to complete it this year.

I was really inspired by the talk I went to on exercise at the Breast Cancer Care Younger Women Together event in Leeds a few weeks ago. Some people give mixed messages about exercise during chemo, before surgery and after surgery, and what you can and can't do. But the exercise and cancer expert there that day reassured me that I can do the exercise I want to do, whenever I can. I left the event with a cold that turned in to a cough, and so I've done no exercise since. But I think I'm ready for it now! I can't wait to get running again too.

Seeing as this blog is a pretty much full disclosure blog, I'm even going to share my photos with you. So here I am, Day 0. No abs, just the excess weight I've put on since I started chemo! (And while I'd like to blame it on the drugs, we'd all know that's a lie.)

Question is, will anyone else join me in the challenge this time? Or is it just the girl on chemo that's hardcore enough for this? ;-)

Update!

I've had a friend sign up already! And I thought in the interests of bigging up those of you that are hard enough to join me, and putting the rest of you to shame, I'd make a list here of my 30 Day Abs Challenge Gang!

Emily J

Dolores C

Helen J

Hannah C

Joanne F

Emma B

Ali B

Dave S

Who else?!