Crashed and Burned…

I’m not sure just when or why I lost my focus; I know that I did.

I strongly suspect that it was when I went head-over-heels during my cooldown after my last walk-to-run session, nearly three weeks ago.  After that, I started using the resulting soreness and bruising as reasons to skip further workouts, citing a need to heal thoroughly before venturing out again.  I managed to keep up on my pushups program for another week or so after that, but I let it fall by the wayside, too.

I’m doing my best not to come down on myself for this fall; however, I know that it’s only my fault, and I have a hard time NOT coming down on myself.  I’ve always been a perfectionist, and have a lot of difficulty with letting the small stuff go by.

I also have a difficult time sharing my issues – I have definite problems with trust.  I’m going to do my best to overcome this, and set myself a task to become more involved with the support communities that are available to me.

Now, I’m feeling pretty good physically, and my mental and emotional states are pretty good, too.  I don’t have to worry about stumbling on a sidewalk for a bit, either – my DH bought me a shiny new treadmill, which I fully intend to break in tomorrow!

OK, I’m feeling better now, and ready to get started again…  Off to sleep, for a good night’s rest!

Fell On My Head…

So, I guess I pushed it a bit too far too fast…  Or maybe all the walking I did to get to my client site and my polling place detracted my ability to recover from Monday’s attempt at jogging.  At any rate, my legs have been sore today!  So are the muscles in my chest, from doing pushups last night and Sunday, but that has little to do with my decision to not make the second attempt at jogging this evening.

I found out today that I will be showing a coworker around one of our most fitness-friendly job sites – the Oakland Zoo.  We’ll be spending close to two hours walking throughout the park, up and down the hilly paths – probably end up doing close to four miles.  After that, we’re headed to San Francisco, to another job site with about a mile round-trip walk from public transportation.  To top it off, our work dress code does not permit me to wear the most appropriate shoes for all of this walking.  My feet were unhappy enough this morning – I’d like to keep them working as well as possible.

Given all of this, I chose not to attempt a walk-to-run session tonight.  However, instead of just skipping it, as I might have previously, I’ve decided to rearrange the workout schedule to accommodate the demands of my job (and get in some extra walking at the same time).  I’ve taken today as my rest day instead of Saturday.  I will do my third pushups workout for the week after I get home tomorrow.  Running sessions will take place Friday after work, and Saturday morning, so that I still get three of those in for this week.  Three pushups workouts, three running workouts – that’s the weekly plan.

I’ve also realized that I should probably start off a bit more slowly on the walk-to-run program.  Next session will be five intervals sets of one minute jogging and five minutes walking.  I’ll see how I feel after that before I decide what the next one will be.  Eventually, I WILL get to where I can successfully complete that first workout on the official program!

Boy, Have I Got My Work Cut Out For Me!

It’s been suggested that running may be the closest thing a human being can get to natural flight…

To that end, I’ve decided to give it a try.  Of course, the additional benefits to my physical, mental, and emotional health wouldn’t hurt, either…

Tonight, I started a 13-week walk-to-run program.  Tonight’s workout was meant to be a 5-minute warmup, followed by 12 intervals of running for one minute and walking for two, finishing with a cooldown and some stretching.  When I started, I had grand designs, thinking, “Oh, this shouldn’t be too difficult!”

I couldn’t be more wrong – I made it through four intervals before dragging my sorry overweight out-of-shape butt home, wheezing and panting nearly the whole way.

When I got there, I worked through my list of recommended stretches…  By the time I finished, I actually felt pretty good!

Thinking about it, I may have to reconsider my plan to run a 5K at the end of January…  But you know what?  I’m still gonna try to do it sometime early next year – it might take a bit longer than I initially thought, but I WILL do this!

Instead of moving forward into the second scheduled workout for this week, on Wednesday, I’m just going to try the same one again – maybe then, I can make five intervals!