Run, Run

Is it just me, or does this week already seem like it’s lasted forever? I’ve been busy at work, but also really distracted trying to mentally prepare for my upcoming trip to Europe and everything else I’ve got going on this spring. I’ve been hibernating all winter, so I’m really looking forward to some trips I’m planning and just the nicer weather in general.

This afternoon when I got home from work, I did my second workout in the Couch Potato to 5K Program -- a 5 minute warm-up walk, and then alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for a total of 25 minutes, followed by a 10 minute cool down walk.

I’ve always wanted to be a runner. I gaze at them longingly as they zoom by me on my lunch time walks. I always notice “26.2” or “13.1” stickers on the backs of cars. Call me crazy, but I’m even envious when, while driving to work in the morning, I see a runner wearing goofy pants and plodding along in sleet at seven in the morning. But every time I try to do this program, I completely psyche myself out and stop doing it. I just can’t bring myself to believe that pudgy me will ever be able to run for more than about 60 seconds straight. So I’m trying really hard this time not to let me negative mental attitude get in the way of me physically completing the program.

So far, so good -- although I find I’m a persnickety runner. First off, I have to have a full Nalgene of water, and it has to be luke-warm. I can’t stand cold water. Second, try as I might, I cannot listen to music while I run. I wear my iPod for the warm up, right up until it’s time to up that speed and then I tear the earbuds out frantically and focus on not passing out. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t concentrate when I have songs playing. Also, I prefer to run in an empty house only. This is partly due to the fact that I like – or maybe have – to give myself little pep talks to pump myself up when I know my walk break is almost up. As the timer is counting down, I’ll start to yell, “OK, ten seconds to go. You can do this. Sixty seconds of running. You GOT this. LET’S GO!” Hey, if it helps me get over the mental block, right? And my dogs don’t seem to mind, they just look at me reproachfully from where they lounge on the couch. Lazy bastards.

The final reason that I like to run in an empty house is due to the speed at which I run, which is currently 3.5 mph. No, that’s not a typo. You read that right. Three. And a half. Miles. Per. Hour.

Now, before you tell me how your grandmother frequently power walks faster than that, I’d just to say in my defense that I think a big part of why I’ve failed at this program so many times is because I’ve tried to run too fast in too short an amount of time. So this time I decided to slow it down, even though I don’t want my husband (or anyone else, for that matter) to see me plodding along like and elephant that escaped from the zoo. Hence the empty house. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Aside from my running adventures, today during my lunch break I was able to finish reading the rough draft of my novel, so no more excuses for not having a word count! Even though I didn’t have a lot of time tonight, I was able to get down a couple of words. It’s not much, just to save myself the embarrassment of having another goose egg where my word count should be! Hopefully I’ll be able to add to it tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I’m planning a cheat meal for dinner tomorrow night and I have a presentation that I want to go to during my lunch break, so I’m going to try to get up early tomorrow to get a workout in. This has never been a strong suit of mine, so we’ll see how it goes.


Calories Consumed: 1327
Calories Burned: 320
Words Written: 211