One of Those "Oh God, I Think I'm Going to Die" Days

Last night my husband and I went to the local pool to swim laps. To say I was sucking wind (and a little water) would be an understatement. I know most people are not proficient in the swimming. Now I truly understand why. I like to be in the water and swim. Swimming laps back and forth not so much. But I am determined to be a better swimmer, as that is kind of necessary in triathlons. I am currently reading Total Immersion and I understand how swimming should feel. But putting it all together is something else. And 25 meters seems like a long way across the pool. I can't even imagine 50 or an open water swim yet. I did many laps back and forth, reverting to backstroke when I was winded. And I had 1 lap where I felt like it all came together. I could actually feel that I was doing it right. My husband said it looked like I only took about 4 strokes and I was across the pool. But he has to say stuff like that. So I thought I would be all rested for my C25K Week 6 Day 2 today. Instead I developed some tingling sensation right on my ankle bone and every time it touched the bed I woke up. It didn't hurt but it felt weird. But I woke up and dragged myself out of bed. Then my IPod was dead. That made everything decidedly harder. I couldn't catch my breath, my pace was dead slow, and I started feeling a pain in my hip and tightening in my leg and knee. I don't know if I have IT band issues. My knee doesn't hurt but I have a pain in my butt (literally). I made it through though. Two 10 minute jogs with a (short) 3 minute walk in between. Towards the end I just wanted to give up. I had three minutes to go and it would have been so much easier to just say, "all these things didn't work out so I should just stop." But I didn't. Maybe that same resolve to keep going the last three minutes, even when I really didn't want or need to, will keep me going toward my goals.

C25K Week 6

So I accomplished the 20 minute run Saturday. Yesterday I rode my bike 9 and a half miles and today I started Week 6. Whew, I'm tired just reading that. I love how I have made time to exercise in the morning. My family is still sleeping and I can get up early and have time for me. When I was working out before I thought there was no way I could get up at 6:00 and exercise before everyone was up. I loved my sleep. But now I seem to have made a slight attitude adjustment and I actually enjoy it. Oh sure, there are days I struggle to leave the bed and hit snooze too many times. But as soon as I'm out the door I feel ready. Today I jogged 8 minutes/walked 3/jogged 5/walked 3/jogged 8. I was pretty consistently doing 12 minute miles (that is awesome for me by the way. If you run 8-9 minute miles please keep that to yourself). And I even jogged some of the way below 12 minutes. And I didn't feel like I was going to die. During my jog I noticed I look down at the ground ahead of me. So I made a conscious effort to keep my head up and lean forward slightly and that seemed to actually improve my breathing and time. All of these intervals are paving the way for prolonged jogging. Starting next week there are no more walking breaks. But I know I can do it.

Couch to 5K Week 5

I have just managed to complete Week 5 of C25K. If you are familiar with the plan, you know this is the dum dum dum 20 minute jog. I didn't really have any doubts about finishing it. I have reached this point before. I just really did not want to get out of bed. Friday nights are our neighborhood happy hour and I always end up going to bed way too late. Even my kids were still up and going after 11:00. But then bright and early at 7:00 my smallest wakes up and says, "It's good morning time." No, it definitely is not "good morning" time. But I eventually extricated myself from the covers and managed to get my workout clothing on. I know that if I just start out slow in my warm up I'll eventually feel up to the task. I just have to let myself try it out a little first. In order to make myself not look at my Garmin constantly, I told myself I could not look at the time until 4 songs had played. This worked well because after the 4th song I only had two minutes left. I was slow, glacially slow, but my aim was to just keep my feet turning over. I slip between a 13 to 12 minute mile but sometimes I get real speedy and look down to discover I'm doing 11 and a half minute miles. Seriously, I feel like a turtle. I know I'm supposed to speed up after I get the thirty minutes of constant running down but I sometimes wonder how exactly that will happen. I have a bad habit of wanting it all NOW! But I'll just have to settle for working for it. I have to keep telling myself that at least I'm doing this. I could just be sitting on the couch eating cupcakes. Oh wait, that was yesterday.

RPM

I have recently started taking this class at my local gym. Most people call it spinning. But I belong to a gym that has set classes (Les Mills) so there's not a lot of variety and most classes have "Body" in the title. For example, the yoga class (Body Flow) isn't really yoga. It's a mixture of yoga and pilates. It's more like fitness yoga. The teacher is a personal trainer and not really versed in yoga positions or how to not seriously injure yourself doing a back bend. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure my shoulder problems were started or exacerbated by this rolling move we did one time. And I sure as hell did not attempt the "striking cobra" after the first time, when it felt like my shoulder joints were made up of ground glass. But I digress (don't worry, it happens all the time). I started the RPM class last week. I had been to one class before and I'm not really sure why I stopped because I enjoy working on the bike. I did buy a gel seat cover before the first class though. Sometimes it is so worth it to research things on the Internet. And then last week I bought padded bike shorts and skipped the gel cover. So nice. And just so you know, even though probably everyone in the world but me knew this, you are not supposed to wear underwear with padded bike shorts. See, everyone just assumes you know this so they never mention it. But I am all about the public service. I thought it would be really weird and gross, kind of like wearing a diaper, but the lack of soreness and chafing more than made up for that. I've found that I really like to get out of the saddle and dig in on the "hills." I have yet to really attempt this on my behemoth of a bike. I keep hinting to my hubs that I would like a new, lighter bike. I don't need some fancy road bike but my bike is seriously like Big Bertha of the bike world. And now that I've started looking at bikes I really, really covet a beach cruiser. I saw a little (OK it was huge) red Schwinn at the bike shop the other day. It was on sale! I want it. But I need a smaller lighter bike so that doesn't really help me any. Some day. Some day.

Couch to 5K

I started the Couch to 5K running program five weeks ago because I want to finally, finally become the runner I always dream about. I can walk. Walked a half marathon. But I long to stretch my legs and sprint like a gazelle. Admittedly I will probably never achieve that level of grace and speed but I can dream. I am more of a shuffler. But I have two feet off the ground at once so I'm a jogging shuffler. I have trouble maintaining an even pace and I'll look down and see I'm "jogging" at 13 and a half minute miles so I speed up and then I'm doing sub 11 minute miles. My goal pace is 12 minute miles at this point. I can handle 5 miles per hour. Sure a guy passed me today pushing a baby in a jogging stroller. But he's obviously been doing this a little longer. Plus he didn't actually have to birth the baby. I've had three. That kind of thing slows you down. Add to that the fact that I did not want to leave the comfort of my bed. But I did. And now I'm glad. I'm jog/walking, I like to call it "jalking," 3 miles now. Next month I have to start my 3 Day training so my mileage will go up a little. The goal is to run the Northland Hospice 5K in 38 minutes. It is at 6,000 feet and I keep hoping my adrenaline will make up for the lack of oxygen. Saturday I am scheduled to run 20 minutes straight. I just keep thinking about the blog I'm reading about a woman who started out doing the Couch to 5K and ended up completing 2 Ironmans. Not that that will be me. But I just like to think about people starting small and then accomplishing great things. One day that will be me.

Day One

I have been working out on and off for the last ten years. I will get in moderate shape and then something comes up (usually another child) and I have to start all over. I have done Weight Watchers for longer than I care to remember. It's not like I've lost 30 pounds and gained it all back. I've just lost a little, stayed the same, lost a little more. At this point in my life I am 30 pounds less than my highest weight after my daughter was born in 1999. I was over 200 pounds. I never really felt that big. It sounds so much worse when you say it. I'm 5'8" so I guess it was a little more evenly distributed. But I was not healthy. And I ate to feel better. I ate to feel less depressed, which depressed me even more. I went through a separation and divorce (and then remarriage) and I lost a little but gained it all back when I was happy and married again. Pregnant with my second child in 2003 I developed gestational diabetes and had to watch my carbs and weight. I was probably the healthiest I had been in a long time. I had my boy and then got pregnant again a year later. Developed gestational diabetes again but didn't have as much control. After giving birth to my third child, I was too exhausted to even think about exercise or eating right. I hovered around 190. I finally decided enough was enough in 2007 and started training with my friend to walk a half marathon. I ended up losing about 20 pounds. I have been between 175 and 170 for a year or more. I did make it below 170 briefly by using the South Beach Diet principles but I became complacent and gained some back. I am now 174 and exercising 5-6 days a week and recording my Points every day. I don't have "free days." My mindset is starting to change. I am starting to make a lifestyle change. I have signed up for a 5K in June and a mini triathlon in October. And then there's the Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk. 60 miles in 3 days. Slow miles but 60 miles. I had to start this new blog because I figured people were tired of hearing about my exercise etc. on my other blogs. So hopefully I will learn something, share something and accomplish something.