GUEST POST: RUNNER FEATURE – TASHA at HEALTHY DIVA

• By loramarie03
• 15 October, 2012
• 12 Comments

Tasha is one of my favorite bloggers and I am so excited to feature her in a guest post! She is an incredible woman who has accomplished AMAZING things. You’ll love learning more about her and catching up with her on her blog!

Hi everyone! My name is Tasha and I blog over @ Healthy Diva.

I was honored and surprised that Lora asked me to do a guest post for her while she is getting hitched in Jamaica. This is my first ever guest post and I am pretty excited about it.

I met Lora through Fit Approach where we are both Sweat Pink Ambassadors. We “ran” together on a virtual relay team called “The Pavement Princesses” this last spring. We kicked some major asphalt and won the women’s division. For a while we were winning the whole entire competition! Ladies rock.

I thought about what I should write for a couple of days. I even emailed a couple of my favorite running bloggers for advice. I finally decided to write a little bit about myself. The last couple of years have been a whirlwind of accomplishments and heartache.

After running the Boston Marathon in 2010 I was done running- I was burnt out. Fast forward to January 2011 and I was fat, depressed and out of shape. With the nagging urging of my husband I joined a personal training class at our gym. The first morning I met with the trainer she had me run a timed mile on the treadmill and I about died. I went from being in the best shape of my life and running Boston to running a not so hot 11:00 minute mile. I was mortified, but I also had a fire lit inside of me. Within weeks I was shedding pounds off my body and minutes off of my training runs. I worked out with my training class 3 days a week and then ran 3 days a week using the Run Less, Run Faster philosophy.

My goals at the time were simple:

• Lose weight
• Run a spring half marathon
• Run the California International Marathon to get another BQ

By the end of 2011 I had accomplished crushed all three of those goals.

I lost over 30 inches, but gained so much! 2011 is the year that I got my life back. I had made the decision to pour every ounce of energy I had into becoming a healthier person. My goals were originally small, but as the year progressed along with my level of fitness my goals and dreams got bigger. At 165.4 pounds the last thing on my mind was running a marathon. Anyone can do what I accomplished.

Following CIM I decided to leave my personal trainer and hire a running coach who could help me accomplish a 3:00 marathon. I signed up for the Eugene Marathon within weeks of completing CIM and had big dreams for the perfect marathon. I felt like I was in a good place to have a great 2012.

Unfortunately, little did I know I was running with Compartment Syndrome (CS) in my left leg. After officially being diagnosed with CS I was devastated. I had never heard of this injury before and was absolutely terrified after my Google search revealed some graphic pictures. I bawled my eyes out and was angry that this happened to me. Why me?! I was training so hard and I had so many goals for 2012. The first thing I wanted to know was the obvious “when can I run???” I had already signed up for a handful of races including the St. George Marathon in October which I really had high hopes for running the perfect marathon. My doctor and coach pretty much laughed at me and said there would be no running. That is when I also realized that my dream of going back to Boston in 2013 wasn’t going to happen.

Since being diagnosed in May I feel like I have been on a roller coaster. I have had some great highs, but also a lot of lows. Thankfully my coach has been great and has stuck by my side. I was able to start running again at the end of June, but it has been a gradual build up. My first “run” only lasted 10 minutes and consisted of jogging a 200 and walking a 100 on the track.  Trust me, that was not what I had in mind for my first run. I have mostly been working on form drills, cross training and using my spin bike for 90% of my cardio. My longest continuous run has only been 5 miles, but the most important thing is that I am running pain free for the first time in over a year.

Here are links to my form drills & stretches:

Warm up               http://healthydivaontherun.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-prehabrehab-routine-1.html

Form Drills           http://healthydivaontherun.blogspot.com/2012/07/running-form-drills-2.html

Stretching            http://healthydivaontherun.blogspot.com/2012/08/prehabrehab-stretching-3.html

I ran a 5K a couple of weeks ago that I thought was going to go terrible with having had zero speed work since April, but it was good and I ran a respectable 22:35. It was the boost to my confidence that I needed. I needed to know that I still have it in me. I still have a long road ahead of me and a lot of work to do, but I am ready to tackle it head on.  Even though I am still in the CS recovery process I know that I will be back and even better than I was before. Hard work and dedication really does pay off.

Thanks for reading and letting me share my story! Feel free to contact me @ tashamalcolm (at) gmail.com.

–Tasha