Still loving this running thang....

When does the honeymoon end?  It always ends when I start a new diet, new gym membership, new exercise regime etc etc.  there always seems to be a period of "enthusiasm", "excitement", "dedication" and "consistency".  but then something happens... life interferes... work goes late... tired... sick... bored... sore just to name a few excuses. 

It's been 4 months since we started running and I can't remember if that's long enough to get past the honeymoon stage.  Am I safe yet?  Will my enthusiasm continue?  Will my body be able to keep up with the things I'm making it do?  I guess only time can tell. 

Alex once told me that she is much better at doing things, when she knows there is a specific goal.  When she told me that, I felt like a light began to glow above my head... it felt right and true for me as well.  I began to think about my former exercise and diet plans... yes, there was a goal, but deep in my heart of hearts I don't think my heart and my brain could believe that I could ever attain that goal, be it the weight or the dress size.  When you've been overweight all your life it's hard to believe that something like that can be different....

So when we began talking about running the 5k, I thought about all the times that I'd walked 2 or 3 k on the treadmill in my many many gym visits and realized that 5k isn't that much further, it is doable!  As I've said many times before... I may not be able to run the whole 5k this spring, but I am committed to finishing it! 

I was scared to death of running.. thought my knees would break off....  I  would walk and walk and walk on the treadmills or outside.  I would feel good, but weight loss or any type of progress seemed hard to attain.. It always seemed like I had to work out 6 or 7 days a week for at least an hour and I had to sweat like crazy for anything to happen...  1 hour on a stairclimber or 1 hour of aerobics when they were popular... for someone that is overweight.. an hour is a loooong time... and 6 or 7 times a week is really really exhausting!

I am so happy that I got off my couch and tried running.  I may not be really successful at it, I may not become a world class athlete, or even finish the 5k, but all I know is that I enjoy it a lot and that surprises the hell out of me!  On the nights that we need to delay to the next night due to our schedules... I want to go out and run anyway...... and that is weird LOL  Normally a "night off" from the gym or whatever work out was something to enjoy, celebrate and savor because I wasn't torturing myself with the evil exercise.

This evening we ran... I finished each running segment without stopping early!  Yay for me :)  Next week we're going to try going a bit faster and move to the 3rd week of the program.  EEEEEK!  But Alex did say that if my lungs collapse and my heart needs a defibrilator then we can drop back down a bit... maybe not all the way back to week 2, but run week 3 even if the run segments are not all completed.  So we'll see how it goes...... I'm keeping my toes crossed... well unless I'm running :P

Ooh, she's a little runaway.... (Bon Jovi)

ps  242 days to D day