Training - Week Six

I am nearly too embarrassed to post an update this week, especially after the bravado of my last post. The one where I openly mocked discouragement and misfortune and, yes, talked a little smack.

I hate to admit that, despite my grand intentions to be awesome, discouragement kicked my butt this week. Hard.

Which isn't to say that my swagger wasn't genuine. But life intervenes and I am nothing if not highly susceptible to the wild fluctuations of my own emotions.

I suppose it was apropos that I happened to attend a meeting at work this week that included a presentation on stress (I was there for the free breakfast tacos.) The chipper and Holly-from-The-Office-esque speaker provided us with a handout of common symptoms of stress - physical, emotional, behavioral, social, etc. I had to laugh at how very many symptoms I have. (Laughter is a great stress reliever, by the way.)

I do realize that at some point, and soon, I do need to move beyond just writing about training to ACTUALLY TRAINING.

That little countdown thingy at the top of the page is starting to stress me out.

Training - Week Five

Don't give up on me. I haven't given up yet. Even though the last time I ran was almost exactly 3 weeks ago. [sigh]

Oh well. Last week I told you about how I had missed exercising in Florida because of my ankle pain. And then how I missed exercising the next week because my husband was sick. Well, guess who caught that little bug next? Yep. Me. Laid up in bed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Finally went back to work on Thursday, but did not make the gym. Please - I could barely walk to my car without getting winded.

Can you say discouraged?

The upside, though? I got another week to completely rest my ankle. That's a good thing. I will test it out gingerly this week and will let you know how it goes.

Did you hear that, discouragement & misfortune?? I'm still in training. That's right! In your face!! You can't take me down! I may never be able to run for more than 2 minutes at a time, but I don't care! I will see you at the track and I will stare you down and walk/run/walk my way all over you. So there.

Training - Week Four

It is only for consistency's sake that I am even posting this week.

It's been a little discouraging because I haven't been able to work out at all since we got back.

After our 11 1/2 hour drive home from the beach on Monday, I thought it wise to simply write off Tuesday as a rest day. Then my husband came down with a nasty cold that totally knocked him out all week, so I thought it wise to come home right after work each day to give him a break from the kids and ferry them around to their various activities. Also, my ankle is still giving me some strange pains, so I thought it wise to not subject it to the unnecessary stress that running would cause.

I am feeling so wise.

But totally bummed. Even though I know there is a ton of time before the race and I am not even in my official "training" period yet, I am worried about injuring myself and never learning how to actually run. I want to run! It seems a very elusive goal at the moment.

Oh, track, how I miss you!

But that's okay. I have a plan. My plan is to reevaluate my ankle next week and see how I feel. If I need to, I will just walk and then swim on my off days until I feel like I can handle the running. My biggest fear is that I will slip back into doing absolutely nothing, but thankfully I have encouraging and realistic support here at home, so I don't think I will throw in the towel just yet.

Wish me luck for next week, and if you have any running advice or encouraging words, please send them my way.

Training - Week Three

'nuff said.

Seriously, though, here's the deal. I did run on Monday. The old run/walk/run/walk. I did shorten my walk times to 3 minutes, but kept my run times at 2 minutes. I did pretty well. The trainer went with me to monitor my breathing and form. He said my breathing was "dainty." I said, "Thank you." He also said I did pretty well.

The training plan fell apart on Tuesday. I was supposed to do my swim in the lovely bay you see above. Not sure what happened, because I really did want to do it. I believe I was sleeping. The other wrench in the works is that my ankle started to hurt again after my Monday run (I twisted my foot pretty badly a couple of months ago and the pain flares up once in a while.) So, my trainer told me I should take a few days off. I love my trainer.

Don't think I'm not getting my exercise though. Because beach vacations with four kids in tow are not for rest. For fun, yes. For rest, no.

The gym will still be there when I get back on Tuesday.

Training - Week Two

First off, two things:

• I haven't quit yet. Yay!
• It's still cool to say, I'm in training.

I know, I know. Impressive for week two of some 30 odd weeks to go. It is a big deal though, because this week hasn't been easy. And if I make it through next week (beach vacation) without tossing all of my workouts out the window, I will consider myself good to go for the duration.

This week's summary will be short, as I have a lot of packing to do.

So, this week I followed the same run/walk plan as last week, alternating run days with swim days. Still easing into this whole running/actually-moving-my-body business. Everything went well, even though I missed my swim on Tuesday due to my having to work late. I was afraid missing a day would derail me, but it wasn't too hard to hit the gym again on Wednesday.

Two things I learned this week:

• Running (I use the term "running" loosely here. In fact, for these first couple of months, just assume when I say "running", that I really mean "mostly walking with a little running sprinkled in") with a friend is a different experience than running alone (more on this later).
• Running does wonders to ease menstrual cramps (TMI, seriously, but it is true).

Check back next Friday to find out how my vacation beach workouts turn out.