Hi, Everyone!
Over the next 12 weeks, I will be documenting my progress with the Her Tern half marathon training group and sharing my experience. Training officially starts Wednesday 4/26/17 and we will have 2 workouts a week leading up to the race on July 16, 2017.
Hey there! For those of you who don’t know me my name is Sabra and I’m the Clinical Manager here at ORCA. I have had the pleasure of being part of the ORCA family for 10 years now. When I first started with Dr. Vermillion I was envious of all of my incredible athletic coworkers. If you don’t know Dr. Vermillion is an avid biker and hiker and has a pretty decorated history as an athlete. Our administrator at the time was a marathon runner and our surgery scheduler frequently did long distance bike rides for charity. This was all very admirable but it seemed unachievable for me. See I was easily 100lbs overweight and had never even made it through the mile in school without wanting to die. At some point about 6 years ago I decided enough was enough something had to change. I took a long look at my diet and after way, too many failed attempts at short-term solutions decided that I had to make this a lifestyle change. I overhauled my eating habits and on a challenge from a friend signed up for the Gold Nugget Triathlon, which by the way is an incredible event. So now I had no choice in 5 months I was going to do it whether the weight was off or not. Much to my surprise with the changes to my diet and adding exercise the weight did start to come off. I survived that event and I have been hooked. It was such an amazing feeling to complete a goal I never thought I could! Eventually, I lost almost 100lbs. I started doing 5ks and after another successful gold Nugget decided to really push myself and sign up for the Lavaman Triathlon in Hawaii. To my surprise, I lived through that too! I also became a certified health coach so that I could help other people on their journey!
I wanted to share my story with you because I want you all to know that anyone can do this. Like many of you have struggled with my knees and as a result, I have gained back about 25lbs of the 100 I lost. I understand the restrictions of orthopedic injuries but I also know how much better my body and my knees feel when I’m active.
This summer after my most recent IRAP injection I am embarking on a new challenge. I have signed up for the Her Tern Half Marathon and in order to prepare I’m going to participate in Skinny Raven Hern Tern training group. This will be the longest race I’ve ever done and running is the nemesis of my knees. I want to recommit to my healthy eating habits and hopefully, I can get some of this winter weight off as well. On Wednesday night we met our coaches over snacks and wine. They told us about themselves. What made me feel the best is that there are ladies of all shapes and sizes from walkers to avid runners. I talked to them in detail about my knee issues and they were awesome. They assured me that workouts can be modified and so matter what my speed they are there to support me. My goal with this group is to work on my form both with jogging and walking and to learn to control my breathing. I’m gonna check in with you guys weekly and let you know how it goes. I would love to hear you too, let me know what motivates you and what goals you have. Sometimes things seem unachievable but if we can break it down into smaller goals we find it wasn’t as hard as we thought! I hope you guys will follow me on this journey and even join me in the race, I would love the company out there!
See you next week, Sabra