Week 2, Session 1- take 2

Week 2
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Session 1 (45 minutes) Run 1 minute. Walk 4 minutes. Do this 9 times.

2 1/2 miles + warm-up/cool down!

That's all I can say about that...lol

Week 1, Day 2- Take 2

So, I get back from my run awhile ago...and I feel like crap. (I try not to actually touch the stuff, but when you have two kids, it just kind of happens) I feel like the proverbial crap.

I did my run:
Session 2 (40 minutes) Run 30 seconds. Walk 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Do this 8 times.

And after the 1st mile (after the 4th time) I started wanting to quit. I was being passed by walkers, I wasn't keeping up the pace I had yesterday...what was wrong with me? (Maybe those tortilla chips at 9:30 last night?!?) I really wanted to quit. After the 6th time, I started justifying to myself all the reasons I could quit. "I'm not a runner. I'm not fooling anyone. I've never been athletic, why should I start at 29?"

BUT, I kept going...if there's anything I've learned it's that I KNOW running another mile will not kill me. I may be really red in the face and it may take me forever; but my body is physically capable of doing it, if I mentally make it do it. So, I did! Even though I still feel poopie about the run, I did it.

So, I log on to my blog and check my stalk-worth blogs on the right to see a new post by Running Off at the Mouth...and it's just the encouragement I needed! We're not in the same situation really, she's an AMAZING runner; a pro who makes running sound exciting and fulfilling because she loves it...now if you read her post, you know that she's trying to "get out of a slump", but this girl's got gumption!! Check her blog out if you haven't....

Back? Isn't great that we have people to encourage us, even if they don't know it? I believe that we were created with a desire for community...a desire to connect with other people (I wonder why blogging's so popular?!?) Ok, now I'm going to go hunt me down some protein and get ready to have a great day with my sweet munchkins before that little boy goes off to Kindergarten soon!! *sigh*

Not today....

No butt kicking today, sucka's!!!

I went back to the beginning
Session 1 (35 minutes) Run 30 seconds. Walk 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Do this 7 times.
2 mi + warm up, cool down. (I think that's more distance/per minute than the 1st time I did this day!)

I went out a little after 6...and gosh it was dark!! Like, it wasn't this dark at six am in June!!! I'm sure it has something to do with it getting closer to the equinox or the pull of the moon on the waves or some non-sense I don't understand; but man, I was kind of scared when I got a block from my house! Can I run with a pocket tazer? Do they make pocket tazers?!? (why is spellcheck telling me tazer isn't a word??)

Anyway, my deer friends were back this morning to scare the crap out of me. They must have missed me because they were waiting way closer than normal this morning and jumped up off the ground..in the darkness...about 30 feet away and didn't run even when I kept approaching them. Are these attack deer?? FoS (Field of Snakes) was interesting to cross in the dark this morning...no ankle breaking today, no thanks to the ground squirrels.

Ok, I'm gross and hungry (not a normal combination, I promise) and I'm sure you're all ready to stop reading my verbal vomit now...so have a great Monday!!!

July

I can tell by all the rage and worry filled emails I've gotten (NOT) that you've all been wondering where I've been. You've been wondering if I've been running and how it's going. (right...our culture doesn't understand accountability in our personal lives) Sorry to have you on the edge of your seat for the last month, I hope your fingernails forgive my absence...

Honestly...after the first week in July, I didn't train another day. I ran after students and my own children, but not anything worth constituting a raised heart-rate for any period of time. HOWEVER (prepare for and insert the typical excuses here) I did not just sit on my cute bum the whole month!! Oh no, friends, this was no vacation.

First week, we did a "Mission" trip in our community. We found people and houses in need in our own community and helped them out in tangible ways. Most of the adults used a week of their vacation to roof and paint houses, mow yards, and reconstruct walls (as well as teach teenagers these skills needed to accomplish said tasks)...in 100+ degree weather, may I add?? Here's a few pics from our week:

2nd week was youth camp. GREAT TIME!!! Some people think I'm crazy, but I love being able to have a positive impact on teenagers lives and their eternity. Every morning I'd wake 20 teenage girls up at 6 am to get ready for the day. (20 girls who had to share 3 showers, 3 toilets and 6 electrical outlets) Yeah...anyway, we'd end the night at about midnight, although that was when some of the best conversations took place and then I took my shower and made sure the girls eventually fell asleep around 1:30. It was an exhausting and amazing week!!
Then, FINALLY I got my children back. Of course they'd grown inches and changed physically in those 3 weeks...I hugged them as long as they let me. My parents and one of my sisters stayed the week with us and we showed them some more of west Texas. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed my time with them!! We went to a "local" (hour away) farmer's market one day, and that was fun! There wasn't as much of a selection as I'd hoped, but it was still good to buy peaches that hadn't been doused in pesticides and who knows what else! (Ok, so this last week was a vacation...and this past week was me being lazy and enjoying my own bed and house again)

Tomorrow, I start learning to live again. My mom was recently diagnosed as diabetic, and my dad has been for a few years now. All of my grandparents and some of my great-grandparents are/were diabetic. (some of them were due to obesity, some were just "genetically predisposed" I guess) I was gestational diabetic with my sweet girl. I am not obese by any means, but I know that I am a prime candidate for it as well if I do not live wisely. So it is time to get back on track with my health now that I can better control what I eat (being at home again) and how to spend my time. I will start back at Week 1, Day 1 to see how I fare since it's been quite awhile!
(Feel free to kick my cyber butt if I don't!)

I'm a baby runner

Saturday I did my 3rd session. My sister and bro-in-law were in visiting, and at Saturday morning at 3 am as we finished up our last round of Farkle (we are wild and crazy folks, I'm telling you!) I decided I was not going to go running at 6am. lol So that afternoon, we were going to all walk to the park and I was going to get my run/walk on. I'd asked my sister if she wanted to run/walk with me (since I'm in the very beginning and she's been working out lately, so she's in pretty good shape) and she said it sounded like fun! Then she realized that she forgot to pack her tennis shoes and all she had were flops and sandals...not conducive to running on a gravel path. And I have wimpy 6 1/2 -7 size feet compared to her 8 1/2 ones. :( The old me would have felt bad for doing something without her since she was here to visit ME this weekend, but she seemed ok with me ditching her for a short 45-60 minutes, so she, her husband and my sweet husband played soccer and dug in the dirt with our 4 kids while I :
Session 3 (40 minutes) Run 30 seconds. Walk 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Do this 8 times.
Done and done. I walked/ran a little over 6 miles total this week!!! And I remembered why I run in the mornings....yuck. I was so sweaty AND it was so humid because we actually have some rain going on in west Texas!! There was some really pretty lightning going on later that night!

It had been raining off and on last night, and I have never ran (on purpose) in the rain before, and I decided that a sleepy 6am wet run was not in the cards this morning. So, I went this afternoon and sweated my hiney off. I did about 2 1/2 miles!! Yay, me!! lol
Session 1 (45 minutes) Run 1 minute. Walk 4 minutes. Do this 9 times.
Done and Done.
I really wanted to quit about time 7. Really, really wanted to. Had all kinds of excuses going through my head. Daniel was at home with the two girls, and he was tired and grumpy when I left, so I thought it might be best for all of us if I just went home to take over/help out. I was hurting in my ankles/calves bad. I started to get kind of fuzzy feeling in my head. (not breathing right/enough oxygen?? Is that what a "runner's high" really is?? jk) Daniel and I haven't gotten to spend much time together lately; maybe I should cut it short and go home...
But I really wanted to do this. People decide to do harder and more trying things than this every day....I can finish walking/running for 45 minutes. And I did!!! Woot! I feel like such a baby sometimes when I look at how whiny I am about training...but I AM a "baby runner." Now, if I"m still like this in 3 months, somebody should tell me to put my big girl panties on...but for now...I think it's normal to be a "baby" SOMETIMES.
4 more days with my nephew and neice, and then this weekend we bring our kiddos to my parents house for 3 WEEKS! 3 WEEKS people!! Alas, this 3 weeks is not to be spent in Italy like I've been day dreaming about...but rather with teenagers. 1 week getting ready for the next two weeks; 1 week with smelly teenagers as we paint houses, mow yards, roof houses, etc. And 1 week with teenagers at camp playing silly games and figuring out life. I love this time with our students/teenagers, but I miss my kids! I'm also trying to figure out ways to incorporate running into the schedule for those weeks of madness...it'll work somehow, right?!?

Impatient Me

Week 1
Session 2 (40 minutes) Run 30 seconds. Walk 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Do this 8 times.
Done and Done.

I am thankful for legs that hurt at the end of 2 1/4 miles, because that means that they work and walk and run when I have the notion.

I am thankful for lungs that feel as though they might explode because they are not used to having to work this hard- but can.

I am thankful for a red face (why does it do that after running?!) that can respond when my wonderful husband asks how my run was in the morning.

...I am a very impatient person. I know that I have several talents and abilities, but I seldom try new things because I want to be "good" at whatever it is immediately. This is completely unrealistic, I understand and acknowledge that; but it just makes "working up to something" even harder for me!! :) I want to be able to run well, and I want to be able to do it now (after only 2 days...lol) *sigh* but this too shall take time. And it will be well worth it. I hope in about a month I can look back at this post and smile because I've improved so much! That pacing myself and working hard and consistently will have made a difference.

Next week is the week of 4 children. My neice and nephew (2 and 8) are staying with us for a week....we get to be the "cool aunt and uncle" who show them an amazing time in west Texas! (As compared to the "exhausted aunt and uncle who put all children to bed an hour earlier for sanity's sake" lol) Happy Friday to you and yours!

Training-Day 1

Session 1 (35 minutes) Run 30 seconds. Walk 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Do this 7 times.

Done and done.
:)
I can't remember the last time I was sweating this much...but I feel SO good!! How can feeling this gross feel so good?!? lol I went out at 6:15, and according to Daniel; "the sun wasn't really up yet." But I like going out this early, it's so much cooler and most other (sane) people are still sleeping since it's summer!! I had just gotten started and over my shoulder I saw this huge animal coming up beside me about 300 feet away...at first I thought it was a dog, and I was like what the crap?!? because I have nothing on me to repel dogs or creepers (which I need to remedy!!!) So I freeze and turn to look at it and then it freezes and I realize that it's a deer!!! (hey, it was still dark!) I started walking again and it ran into the woods ahead of me...cool!! I really like being the only one at the track when I go. Is that weird??

Well, I walked/ran a little over 2 miles today! yay, go me! 2 more x this week to kick off the first week!!!