Day 1/112 chemo every 2 weeks - 16 weeks

This morning I was up early and did a 30 min easy paced run. I wanted to draw a line in the sand and see what distance I can run easy in 30 mins before chemo (BC) I wasn’t fresh as I had run 3x 1k repeats the day before and walked 5k with friends the night before. So I wanted a measure of what distance I could cover in 30 mins while fatigued BC.

A few weeks before my diagnosis, in December 23, I entered the Great Ocean Road 1/2 marathon which is to be held on 19th May 24, tomorrow. Needless to say I had to cancel when diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer with treatments including certain breast surgery & lymph node surgery followed by chemo and radiation.

However I continued to train initially walking after surgery on 13 February 24, building that up to 10k then getting back to running after a couple of weeks. I’m not doing any spectacular times though, just doing it.

So, since I can’t do the 1/2 marathon at the Great Ocean road, I planned another achievable road trip with my friends to do a 10k on Good Friday 30 March.

However, I then found out on 7 March I had to go back for a 2nd surgery on my breast in early April. Knowing this i decided I had no intention of running the 10k either but I didn’t tell my friends that. I just went along with our travel plans. Three days before the scheduled run date I went out for an easy walk and run over a 10k distance. I had actually been inspired by two separate sightings of a male runner the day before when I was out for a walk with my partner. They were obviously doing a long slow run and they appeared to be running very slowly. And I thought to myself “but they’re doing it”. I was inspired😜

Long story short I decided to run the 10k on 29 March. I managed to complete it in a very satisfying 78 min time. It was all very slow jogging pace but I didn’t have to walk. 2 days later I had the 2nd surgery.

At the appointment with my oncologist, prior to chemo (PC) he said I will probably feel tired while on chemo. So he said if I feel tired I should walk around the block. So I said “so when you say I should walk around the block, is that all I should do? What if I’m used to walking 10k? Or running “. He said I should continue to do what is normal exercise for me.

So my strategy for running on chemo is this, I have introduced another few measures for myself over the next four months. I have no expectations that I will be even able to run 1k at a time, from the stories I have read about other runners while on chemo. But, I hope to have a go.

The month PC, I did these trials.

3x 1k repeats

5k run time

10k run time

30 mins running (distance covered)

I would love to hear from anyone else who is on chemo and trying to keep active. If you are already running on chemo (ROC) then please share I’d love to be inspired and motivated.

If you too like me are new to this perhaps we can inspire and motivate each other.