Victory!!

It's a small victory for me, but nonetheless I'm proud of myself! I completed the baby monster (W5D3) this morning without walking! I finally crawled out of bed at 6:50 this morning after a little snuggle time with my alarm clock (aka-my daughter). I took my time getting ready this morning and even took a few minutes for a good stretch. Let me tell you, it was nice having a little extra time to wake up a bit before heading out. During the week I basically roll out of bed, get dressed, brush my teeth, and head out the door. I love my sleep, but I'm definitely going to have to consider getting up just a few minutes earlier during the week for a little extra wake up time. I really think it made a positive difference.

Anyway, on to the run...During my 5 minute warm up I really focused on keeping my thoughts positive and taking some really deep breaths to fill and open up my lungs. As I started the run I felt pretty good. I noticed that it was a little warmer and more humid than my morning runs have been up to this point, but I wasn't about to let that bother me. Somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes into it my thoughts started to veer to the negative side. I started thinking too much about my breathing and how my mouth was feeling really dry, despite the gum I was chewing. Then I noticed that my knees were hurting ever so slightly. So I told myself something similar to what I saw someone write on the C25K Facebook page: "Your legs haven't fallen off yet and you haven't coughed up or lost a lung. You're doing fine and YOU CAN DO THIS!!" I realized that I really didn't have that far to go and I just needed to suck it up. I changed the channel in my brain and left the whiny attitude behind.

During the last little stretch I saw my neighbor jogging up his driveway and out of the woods. That was all I needed to kick myself in gear. Suddenly I started to move a little faster and my form improved. It's funny how simply seeing other people out and about is enough to make you step it up a notch. I finished strong and felt really good about it. Obviously I had my moments, but overall I think I did well. I honestly haven't looked ahead to see what week 6 entails. Maybe I'll check that out today. Either way, I know that I can handle it!!

Getting Ready for the Baby Monster

So tomorrow's the big day...my first time (in years) to run 20 minutes without stopping! Notice I said "to run" not "attempt to run." I plan to attack it and not look back. I must admit though, I am a little nervous. Due to my work schedule I have had 2 days off. I'm not too sure how this is going to affect me. I'm hoping it works out to be a good thing. Nonetheless I'm moving forward.

I plan to get my clothes out and ready, i-pod set, shoes and knee brace by the door, and take off shortly after waking up. Chances are this will be sometime before 7am. My daughter makes a wonderful alarm clock and she seems to be waking up earlier everyday (today it was 6:15 as I was preparing to take off for work).

I will be back to let you know how it went. Until then, I'm off to prepare and then get some much needed rest. Happy resting and running!

Random Things About Me

Here's a few things about me:

1. Jesus is my Savior.
   
2. I'm 30 years old and married my high school sweetheart. We met at the beginning of our senior year and have been together ever since. We just celebrated our 8 year anniversary.
   
3. I have 2 children whom I adore. There are times that I still can't believe that I helped create life.
4. I'm a full time mom and a part time nurse.
5. I work at an outpatient surgery center, but my true passion is Labor and Delivery.
   
6. My sister is one of my best friends. She is the most patient person I know. She is also one of the world's greatest babysitters (she keeps my children on the days that I work)!
   
7. In high school I was pretty athletic. My number one sport was volleyball.
8. I've never been a big fan of running. I think that it's due in part to my all-or-nothing attitude and unwillingness to take it slow (I'm currently working on these).
   
9. I want so badly to become a real runner.
   
10. I'm addicted to diet coke. I know that I need to break that habit, but just haven't put my mind to it yet.
11. I'm not a very good writer, but I'm trying. This blog is basically for me to be able to keep up with my running. I've read that most people have better success if they keep a journal or log of their workouts. So here it is.
12. I like to chew gum when I run so that my mouth doesn't dry out from breathing.
13. I had really straight hair until I gave birth to our first child...crazy hormones have made it curly.
14. My in-laws live just up the hill from me and I think it's WONDERFUL!
15. I actually like doing the kids' laundry. There's something fun about little people's clothing.
16. I absolutely despise scrubbing my shower. I end up with a headache every time.
17. I've NEVER really liked my body. The only time I was somewhat happy with myself was during my pregnancies. Who doesn't love a big belly?!?
18. I have a MAJOR sweet tooth.
    
19. I hog the covers at night.
20. I've never had a real eye exam.
21. I'm not good with conflict and try my best to avoid it.
22. I can't dance.
    
23. I have osgood-schlatter's disease in both of my knees.
24. I'm not a big fan of leftovers. I usually pawn them off on my husband.
    
25. I like to bake, but I'm not a huge fan of regular cooking.
    
26. I don't get computers and electronics. I can usually get them to perform basic functions, but that's about it.
27. I have 1 older brother, 1 older sister, and 2 half sisters (one older and one younger).
28. My favorite store is Target. I rarely come out of there having spent less than $100.
29. My sister and I married brothers.
30. I fall asleep almost every time we rent a movie (even the ones that I want to see).
31. I'm a pretty low maintenance girl.
    
32. I love to take naps but rarely have time to do it.
33. I can barely walk in heels.
34. Most nights I'd rather eat a bowl of cereal for dinner than a real meal.
35. I'm not really a morning person OR a night person. I'm more like a middle of the day type of person.
    

That's about all I have time for for now. Feel free to ask me any other questions. Happy running!

Repeater

There's something so refreshing about an early morning run when it's cool outside. Today it was somewhere in the mid 60's and it was wonderful. The 60's are probably my favorite temps for exercising outside. I'm dreading the day when it's in the upper 70's and 80's when I wake up. Blah! Unfortunately, I know that it's coming all too soon. As for now I won't dwell on that, I'll just enjoy this lovely weather while it lasts!

This morning I started the 5 minute warm-up walk still not knowing whether I was going to repeat the three 5 minute jogs or if I was going to push it and go for the two 8 minute jogs. It wasn't until Carli (from the www.runningintoshape.com podcasts--by the way, I love these!) came on my i-pod and said that it was time for the D1 folks to slow down for the 3 minute recovery, that I finally decided to go for the 8 minute intervals. My body felt decent and my head wasn't nearly as heavy as it was yesterday so I decided to just go for it. I figured that it would be good practice before my 20 minute monster on Saturday. And you know what? I did it, no sweat (well, maybe a little sweat, but no hardships)!

Now I get to rest for 2 whole days before (dum-dum-dum) a full 20 minutes without stopping. Who am I kidding? I may not be running, but I certainly won't be resting. I'll be working for the next two days (10 hours each), plus taking care of the children, keeping up with the household chores, and nursing a sick hubby. Life continues outside of my new little world of jogging...and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Hopefully I'll be back on Saturday to let you know how awesome I was and how great I felt. If you don't hear from me by Monday, please send someone out to find me! ;-)

Heavy Headed

I went out for another early morning run this morning. I was out the door by 6:35am. In some ways it's tough leaving when the entire house is still all tucked comfortably into their beds, snoozing away. In other ways it's kind of nice; no children to tend to, no breakfast to prepare, no one tugging at my pants and crying for me to stay. Today it was on the tougher side to leave. I was soooo sleepy. My head felt heavy as I put my shoes on and set out. My eyelids felt like they had sandbags on them attempting to push them shut. It was such a struggle to keep them open. If I hadn't been afraid of making too much noise I might have gone back in the house to scrounge up a few toothpicks to prop them open.

Oh well, it was too late for that. I was already out and had locked the door behind me. So onward I went. Today was W5D2 (8min jog, 5min walk x2). My body felt good as I ran, if only my head and eyes could have perked up. It would have been glorious. The air was cool and it was a beautiful morning to be out. I finished both intervals without any trouble. I kind of liked the fact that today's schedule only had two intervals of jogging. It seemed easier for my mind to overcome just two rounds of running vs. having to stop and start 3 or4 times. I'm still a bit nervous about this weekend's 20 minutes of continuous running. I'm going to try to play some little mind games to convince myself that it's just 1 little run. I can do it! This is what I've been working towards.

I still plan to repeat D1 or D2 depending on my mood tomorrow. That will provide me with another chance to boost my self-esteem before taking "the big one" head on. Wish me luck.

Holy Humidity!

My husband went out of town for a fun weekend with some of his guy friends this past weekend. While he was away my daughter got sick, ran a fever, refused to sleep, and was extra clingy. Figures! So when my hubby returned and it came time for me to tackle W5D1 I was prepared with a whole new artillery of excuses. I informed my husband of the rough weekend that he missed out on and pretty much listed each and every reason why I was just too tired to jog. He totally understood. He seemed to be in agreement with me and backing my decision to just stay home and rest. I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason I decided to overcome my exhaustion and put my running shoes on. At 5:30pm I headed out the door into the ridiculous heat and humidity of the evening.

The first 5 minute interval was surprisingly easy. I was expecting it to be miserable and figured I'd never get through it, but quite the opposite. I actually felt pretty good and like I could have kept going. I didn't though. I listened to the prompts and walked as instructed. The next two jogs were each slightly harder than each one before it, but overall it wasn't so bad. I totally impressed myself and finished the run in pretty good shape. Go me!!

W5D1 down. Only a few more to go and week 5 will be in the dust! I'm going to do D2 tomorrow morning before work. Then I think I'll either repeat D1 or D2 on Wednesday morning (just depending how I feel) and move on to the big 2o minute run from D3 on Saturday after I've had 2 days to rest. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it!! Happy running!

Crashed but not Burning

Man, oh man! I have nothing to say for myself. I have no excuses (well, I have about a million, but none of them are even worth mentioning). My diet, if you can even refer to it as a diet, has been ridiculous the past couple of days. Cinnamon muffins with loads of butter, queso dip with tortilla chips, pizza, soda, cookies, bowls upon bowls of sugary cereals, french fries...I hate to admit it, but the list goes on.

I had done really well for over 2 weeks. If you don't know me then let me just tell you, 2 weeks is truly amazing for me. I didn't eat any real desserts (sugar free jello with fat free cool whip is as close as I came to a dessert), muffins, cookies, candy, or frappes. I increased my water intake like a mad-woman. I was rockin it!

Well, as you read, that all came crashing down. I own it. Yes, I did screw up. Yes, I ate like crazy and I regret it. But you know what? That's all behind me. I'm living in a new moment right now and I vow to get my eating back on track. There's no use sulking over it or driving myself nutty because of it. I know that I'm going to continue to have my good days and bad but no matter what I will continue to move forward. I will NOT go down in flames. I will rise above them and conquer! Watch me.

Week 4 Down

I got up early again this morning for my fourth and final week 4 run. I did it! Week 4 is behind me. Again, the hardest part was physically getting out of bed. Once I was out the door I was set. The first 3 minute jog-no problem. The first 5minute jog-not too bad. The recovery after the 5 minutes didn't seem quite long enough, but I didn't skip a beat when the lady on my podcast told me it was time to pick the pace back up again for another 3 minutes. It wasn't super easy, but I managed. The final 5 minute jog-not too shabby. I knew I was almost done, so that kept me moving. I refused to let myself walk. It was only 5 minutes, I could do it. And guess what? I DID IT!

I've looked ahead and I'm fully aware of what's in store for me on week 5 and I'm a bit less than enthusiastic. I know that I can do it though. And if I don't? No biggie! There's always another day. It's not like the program has to be completed in a certain time frame. I'm doing this my own way and on my own timetable. (Note that I'm not only informing you, but also working to convince myself here.) So either way, wish me luck on my first attempt at a week 5 run.

As of now I plan to tackle W5D1 on Sunday. I'm giving myself a much deserved rest day. So it's off to bed for now to get the resting underway!

Up to Speed

Let me bring you up to speed on how I'm approaching this whole running thing and the Couch to 5K. As I've said several times now, I'm "loosely" following the C25K program and progressing at my own pace. I started on May 9th with week3 (Yes, I did say week 3). I did that same run again on the 10th, 12th, and 13th. Then on Saturday the 15th I walked/jogged to my own music without a podcast or watching the clock.

This week I decided to move on to week 4 and have completed it on the 16th, 18th, and again today with plans to do it again at least one more time this week. Hopefully by Sunday I'll be feeling well enough and confident in myself to move on to week 5. But we'll see how the rest of the week plays out.

That's been it up to this point. My work schedule is all over the place for the month of May so I haven't made a real schedule. I know that that's something I need to do in order to continue on this path. Otherwise I can see myself falling into my usual routine of putting things off for the perpetual tomorrow. So later today I plan to do just that. I think maybe I need to put it on the calendar so I have a visual and know what to expect each day and can check it off as I go (I love being able to check things off!).

As for additional types of workouts (ie-weight training, swimming, etc.) well, they're not in the plans for now. I'm totally focused on running. It's not to say that I won't do the occasional ab video with my husband (he's on his second round of P90X), but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself and end up stressing over it or giving up altogether (speaking from past experience here).

I'll keep you posted on my progress and my plans. For now, happy running!

My First Early Morning Run

On Monday night I decided that I would get up early in the morning so I could run before heading to work. I got my clothes out, my i-pod set to the right music, and my shoes by the door. I set my alarm for 6:22am (for some unexplainable reason I don't like to set my alarm to go off at "normal" times). I went to bed thinking positive thoughts about getting up in the morning to exercise, of all things.

Tuesday morning the alarm annoyed me right on schedule. Of course I hit the snooze button, which only buys me 4 minutes. After the 4 minutes it beckoned again. This time I turned it off, rested another minute or so and then I actually got out of bed! I proceeded to get ready and follow through with my plan to run. I was out the door at 6:35 and on my way.

As I've said before I'm loosely following the Couch to 5K program. I chose to run week 4. At first I was pretty sleepy, but was able to shake that off during the 5 minute warm-up. I jogged the first 3 minute run interval and felt pretty good. The air was a bit thick from the humidity, but I handled it. By time I got to the final 5 minute run I was feeling the effects of not getting enough sleep the night before. About half-way through it I walked for roughly 30 seconds and then picked the pace back up to finish.

Despite the brief unscheduled walk, I did it!! I completed my first early run! I was so proud of myself and felt pretty good all day. I was even happier with the fact that I didn't have to worry all day about when I would be able to sqeeze in my run. I will definitely be doing some more early runs. It may be tough to get out of bed and get going, but it was so worth the payoff in the end!

All Geared Up

Since Mother's Day I've run several times. After about two runs (and a lot of pain) in my old tennis shoes I followed the advice of many and bought some actual running shoes. I went to a local store and had them perform a gait analysis. Turns out I over pronate and needed some running shoes with a bit of stability to help correct this problem. After trying on several, I bought a pair of Brooks for around $100. I thought the price was ridiculous but I overcame my cheapness (if that's even a word) and bought them. So far I'm very pleased! They felt great right out of the box.

Well, seeing as I had new tennis shoes I couldn't barely go out running in just any old clothes now, could I?!? After work on Friday my car drove me straight to Target (my son calls it "mommy's store" if that's any indication of how often we go there). I couldn't fight it. My car developed a mind of it's own, pulled in to the turn lane, and took me directly to the parking lot. What's a girl to do? So I went in and got myself some new duo-dry capris, tank tops, and socks. I have yet to give them a try, but I'll let you know what I think just as soon as I get them washed up and on the road with me.

The last thing to do was to update my i-pod with some new tunes. The first several times out I ran along to one of the Couch to 5K podcasts available on i-tunes. It was great to have someone telling me when to walk, when to run, and providing some encouragement along the way. The only downfall is that I'm not much into techno. If I'm actually going to succeed and finish the program I needed to have better (in my opinion) music. After searching the internet I found some good alternatives and can't wait to see how it goes.

Now that I've invested so much money and time I sure better get my rear in gear and conquer this running thing!!!

Just Getting Started

The title says it all...I'm just getting started. What it doesn't tell you is that I'm trying to start several things. Obviously I'm trying to get started with this whole blogging thing (we'll see how that goes). But what I'm really trying to focus on is RUNNING! I started running on Mother's Day and have decided that I want to continue and try to make a habit of it. I'm a busy mom of two and I work out of the house part-time, so it's going to be a challenge. I've decided to loosely follow the Couch to 5K program and progress as I see fit.

So why have I decided to start running, you ask? There are many reasons. The main reason is a common one: to lose weight and get into shape. My daughter was born almost 2 years ago, and although I'm only carrying about an extra 5-10 pounds it's just not the same. I'm much "softer" than I used to be and the weight distribution is quite a bit different than before. Quite frankly, I just don't like my body!

Another reason to run is because I'M TIRED!!! I'm constantly tired. I think that this is partly because I'm not working out and my eating habits have been out of control. I'm hoping that by taking some time to exercise and somewhat improve my food choices (note that you'll NEVER get me to give up all of my vices like sweets and diet coke) that I'll in turn gain some energy. I want to be able to keep up with my kids as they grow and I don't want to be a sideline mom. I plan to be involved with my children and their activities and I realize this will be easier if I'm in better shape.

Let me tell you though, I’ve always been an all or nothing kind of person (some would say I’m a bit of a type-A personality). For example if I wanted to go for a run but didn’t think that I could go out and run 2 miles without stopping then I figured it wasn’t even worth the effort. Granted, I knew that just simply walking the 2 miles or doing walk/jog intervals would burn calories and be beneficial to my health, but I still wouldn’t do it. If I couldn’t just go out and master it, then I wouldn’t even try. Silly, I know. It’s been a struggle for me to overcome such thinking. For quite some time now I’ve been trying to convince myself that doing something, no matter how small, is far better than doing nothing at all. So here I am to prove that this is true!

I must admit, I’ve always been moderately athletic and I’m embarrassed to think that I have lost so much of my talent/athleticism. I fear not being able to keep up with the program and therefore quitting before I’ve really given myself a chance to succeed. (Note to self: DO NOT GIVE UP!!! See this thing through.) I never used to be a quitter. Where did my mental toughness go, my love for a good challenge, and my desire to succeed at all things? Here's to hoping that all of those things return!!

So what it boils down to is that "I'm Just Getting Started!" Won't you follow along as I try to conquer this running thing?