Mistakes, Milkshakes, and Macklemore PJs

Tuesday night we went to the gym that we just joined.  We got a tour, and then did our training plan on the treadmills because it was a rainy night.  I don't like treadmills. My foot was striking different, I didn't feel like I should be talking much to George, but that's how I keep my breath controlled.  I ended up singing under my breath -- the only song I could think of at the time was the Milkshake song (True, I don't know all the words.  And, no, I don't want to think about what the song means.  But I had seen a post on FB -- "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard").  I know. Mortifying.  But no one heard me and it did the trick.  And I survived.

Yesterday was an even stormier day and I had to work a bit late.  So we decided G would do his run at home on the treadmill since he would make it home first.  Then I would do mine when I got home.  It would have been fine if I had paid better attention to my training plan.  I mistakenly told G the training plan for NEXT Wednesday.  So basically, we both did twice the duration of running than we were supposed to.  Good news... we survived.  Bad news... for me, I just barely survived and in fact had to jump up on the rails a couple times.  Ugh! 

Today is another off day.  Tomorrow I will make sure we do the right training plan.  Saturdays are always walk days and Sundays are our ramp up days. 

My prep for the next treadmill run will be to have a CD player nearby to play upbeat music that I know the words to so I can sing along.  If we do it at the gym, I'll dig out my iPod and have it charged up to do the same.  Oh, and I need to get that Thrift Shop song, too... makes me smile every time (I know it has a lot of bad words in it, but still... )!  Macklemore was totally singing about my flannel zebra jammies (not from a thrift shop, mind you! And yes, the feet have zebra faces!)! 

See?

Running is hard.

I tip my hat to all the runners out there! 

I really want to like it.  But running is HARD. LOL.  The hardest part (other than breathing) is admitting that I am in such poor shape.  3 minutes. That’s how long I had to run; followed by 2 minutes of walking and then repeating that sequence four times.  The entire workout was a total of 20 minutes.  Seriously!  Just 20 minutes.  And yet today, I am sore.  It is an “Off” day, so fortunately I only have to go to belly dance class tonight.  And it’s a good thing, because I am tight everywhere!  Any flexibility I once had is long gone.  I really need to work on that, too.  Sheesh. 

Running is hard, but I’m not giving up.

Here's a running quote form my dear friend, Anonymous:

 
"No matter how slow I run, I'm still faster than my couch."

Ain't that the truth?!

Hit the road running...

Yep, once again it has been months since a post.  And a lot has gone on.  Most of it boring.

I have not been to Bikram Yoga since October and the 100 pushup challenge ended shortly after that last post due to an untimely sneeze during pushup #7 that injured my shoulder.  Bikram, while a fantastic form of exercise, is just not a great fit for my life due to the time requirement (basically 4:30 PM - 8 PM on yoga days, which they want to be every day). 

So... on to the new thing.  Running.  My baby sister and my mother both decided to start running this year.  I figure, if they can do it; I can do it.  Well, I jumped the gun a little and George and I tried to run a 5K at the National Harbor.  Without training.  Without even doing basic exercise for months leading up to it.  Okay, so truth be told, we really didn't PLAN to run... but we got there late due to CRAZY traffic and wanted to try to catch up with friends. 

At the Glo Run at the National Harbor in DC

So now I am starting a 5K training program.  I know, I am shaking my head at myself, too.  How could I have gotten so out of shape that I have to TRAIN to run just 3.1 miles? But the reality is, I have NEVER run... like, ever.  Except when playing flag football in college, but that was sprinting very short distances. Oh yeah, and it was more than 20 years ago.

To do this right, I am being guided by a pro.  My trainer is Carrie Grote of Oliverunning.com, and she just happens to be a dear friend from college.  We had lost touch, but reconnected a smidge via FaceBook (meaning I read her posts, and look in awe at her beautiful family photos).  Carrie looks amazing.  And she is a remarkable woman.  And I really hope we get to truly reconnect soon.  But back to running, because Olive it. hee hee.  Carrie has developed a training plan for me so that I can run an entire 5K before my 40th birthday in August.  Race Day is July 28.  Training starts tomorrow. 

The thought is that I will post a little here and there about how it is going.  Wish me luck!