About Me

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CA, United States
I have been a stay at home mom for the last 5 years. I love being with my children and feel so blessed and lucky to have the opportunity to do so, but I often get lost in the shuffle of it all. I have tried to lose weight and get in shape many times in my life, with varying degrees of success. It has seemed especially hard since having kids. So, I've decided to sliver out a little piece of time for myself to get back in shape and get back to feeling good about myself. I am hoping that this blog will help me find an outlet to talk about my experiences and find a community of people who have similar goals. I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Week 2, Day 1 - Bring it on!

The weather report last night predicted rain this morning, so I was mentally preparing myself for a run in the rain.  As is part of my new routine, I lay out EVERYTHING I will need to get ready in the morning- clothes, socks, shoes, hat, iPod, headphones, inhaler, and in this case, rain jacket.  I find that if I can just get out of bed and get ready without having to think about anything, I don't have the chance to psych myself out.  So I went to bed last night prepared, and fell asleep with positive thoughts of running in the rain and kicking week two's ass!

As it turns out, I may be getting better at running, but our local weatherman is getting no better at predicting the weather.  It was a gorgeous, crisp morning with blue skies.  I did, however, have a few strikes working against me.  First, I was experiencing a lot of pain and stiffness in my right shoulder and neck and couldn't fully turn my head.  Second, my monthly visitor decided to pop in a bit early.  I was not giving in though.  If my kids had not been sleeping along with most of my neighbors, I may just have looked up to the sky and screamed, "Is that all you've got?"  No way I was going down.  I did some stretching,  slipped on my headphones, and began listening to the week 2 Chubby Jones Podcast

I started my 5 minutes of brisk walking and stopped half way through just long enough to stretch my legs and calves a bit more before the running began.  I had very bad shin splints in high school and since then, I make very sure to stretch out the muscles in my lower legs really well.  Finally Mia came on and told me to start running.  I will not sit here and pretend that I wasn't scared of this workout.  Even with all my positive thinking, I was still very worried about adding 30 seconds to my run time.  The first leg went very well though.  I noticed the additional run time, but I didn't feel like I was going to die.  The 2 minutes of walking even seemed to be a totally sufficient amount of time between runs. 

Without a doubt, I am not the fastest jogger.  I imagine many of you out there are jogging faster than I do.  My goal at this point isn't to run the fastest 5K, but rather to just be able to run 5K.  Once I can do that, I'll work on getting faster, but for now, I'm not feeling pressure to win any races.  That being said, I am pushing myself and I'm sweating and short of breath and feeling it, but you know what, I did it.  I made it through the entire workout and never for one minute felt like I needed to stop or couldn't go on.  Finally, Mia came back on and counted down the last few seconds of running.  I was still a little less than a mile from home, so I kept walking and switched my iPod over to an audio book.  And let me tell you, I loved that last 10 minutes of just walking, listening to the narrator read to me, breathing heavy at first as I went along and cooling down to nice deep, cleansing breaths. 
I feel so accomplished.  I feel so proud of myself.  I feel so ready to take on my day.  I say it to myself.  I say it to others.  I feel it.  I know it.  I CAN DO IT!

7 comments:

  1. Great idea to have an audio book on your ipod as well as the podcast must try that. Thanks

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  2. Love your blog - you're two days ahead of me, and it's really encouraging to hear how you're doing with the program. Keep up the good work :)

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  3. I gotta tell you - I LOVE to run in the rain. I have to actually motivate more to go out in it, but once I'm out there - it's fabulous!!

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  4. So I just sat down and read through all your entries, and I must say, awesome job! Very honest, very motivating, and I want to call you but it's almost 10:00 so I'll wait until morning. I am so happy for you to have discovered this program, and I look forward to hearing more! Also, I loved the part about the underwear. It's so true, and as far as I'm concerned, if your butt is out running in the cold while most others are still in bed, you have every right to pick that wedgie wherever you may be. That's what I do, no shame at all. Talk to you tomorrow.

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  5. So great to hear you're on to week 2! Props to you for even getting ready to run in the rain- I can always psych myself out when it comes to rain. I'm glad you had a nice run though. Keep up the great work and the fantastic blog! Can't wait to read about W2D2.

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  6. Congratulations on the hard work you're doing!
    It's motivating to blog about it, isn't it? I am also blogging about my Couch to 5K journey - check it out at http://littlerunbigstretch.blogspot.com/

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  7. Your posts are so great! Your comment about yelling "Is that all you've got?" reminded me of one of my favorite "running songs", "Boom" by P.O.D. Don't know if you like them, but check it out. I love singing alone while running, "Is that all you got? Take your best shot!" and "Ready or not. How you like me now?" :D Makes me feel strong and sassy!

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