One Foot In Front

Alright, guys, truth time.

I did not run while I was on vacation. And I’m not ashamed. I almost got plantar fasciitis just looking at the hills around our cabin. But I was all ready to get back on track when I got home.

And then it sleeted just minutes before I should have left the house. Hell no. And while we’re at it: Why is it sleeting in Arkansas in March?

So tonight was my first night back. These crazies didn’t slow down any. After 20 minutes listening to people talk about how to avoid injuries while the artic winds froze our snot to our faces, we got started on 30 minutes of 4run/1walk. About two minutes in to the first run interval, something grabbed hold of my calf/achilles tendon area and did not let go until I stretched at home.

I’ve definitely got to get some extra runs in this week or I’ll be dead on the track when we go 5/1 next week.

Also, so proud of my aunt for making it this far!

And myself for actually sticking with it when I wanted to stay under my heating blanket or just give up after the second interval.

Subtitled: Beer and a little whine

I just have to say Thursday sucked. It sucked the scum off the bathrom tiles in the men’s room of the gas station down the street and spit it in my face. Work had me completely drained and a sinus pressure headache was setting in as I drove home.

But the run was okay. The instep on my left foot is starting to twinge during the run intervals. Nothing major, tho. Actually, it was’t all that terrible (just the last 15 seconds of run intervals). I’m feeling pretty confident now that I’ll be able to keep up.

However, I will be missing next Monday for my honeymoon. I plan on taking shoes and stuff on the trip to squeeze some run time in, but who knows how my legs will react to the jump in run time.

OH, YEAH. When I got home, instead of stretching, I drank a beer, laid on the couch and watchedWreck It Ralphwith Bill. Not exactly athlete behavior, but gotta love burly, caring antiheros.

That is all.

So before I start playing catch up with tumblr and get all distracted, I need to tell you guys how the first WRA clinic went.

In a word, crazy.

And the craziness started way before the clinic. When my car started smoking Tuesday, I put it in the shop and left my house key in my purse. I thought. When I got my car back today and headed home to change clothes and wolf down some dinner, I discovered that my keys were in fact in my coat pocket hanging on the hook in the kitchen. GREAT. Plus I had to pee bad, like considering dropping trow behind a bush bad. I tried breaking in the back window, but two holes in the screen later, I gave up. Luckily, the parents live less than a mile away with my spare key. So eventually I got in.

Getting there and parking wasn’t so bad, even though the parking lot on holds about 250 and there were 500 people supposed to show up. I found my aunt after an unfortunately awkward (for me) incident with a complete stranger. The groups weren’t very well identified, so it’s a little bit of a madhouse. We’re supposed to walk the track until the actual session starts, but 30 minutes of warm up walking is a lot for me. I’d rather just get down to business.

So finally it was time to stretch. There was no bullhorn, no loud speakers, just one girl trying to yell over 500 chattering women. They gave us our signals for each group; luckily Beginner Bs had a foghorn vs a whistle signal. Much easier to recognize. The only thing that really irked me was that our group was going to opposite direction from everyone else. What kind of sense did that make? So there was a lot of dodging of oncoming traffic going on.

There are five intervals. Tonight was 4min walking, 1min running. In ten weeks, it’ll all be running. Tonight that seems a little daunting. By the fifth running minute (when their horn went out and we ran for about two minutes), I was feeling the burn consistently. Truthfully, I was dying to stop. But I made it through the whole thing.

I’m kind of disappointed in just how far backward I’ve gone. I feel worse off than I did when I started running four years ago. And while this could send me into a tailspin of doubt, I’m actually using this disappointment as motivation. I’m going to finish this clinic and at the end I’m not going to be disappointed anymore.

Ugh, long post. If you made it through, ten awesome points!

Tonight I attended the orientation meeting for the local chapter of Women Run Arkansas. For the next ten weeks, I will have no excuses not to run. There will be 400+ women expecting me to be out there running with them.

Actually, WRA is a pretty awesome group. There are women who’ve never run; women who run multiple marathons a year; women who just want to get away from their kids a couple nights a week, and they’re all there to support and motivate one another, no matter their fitness/running level. Two nights a week, clinic is held where everyone runs intervals (according to their level), and everyone is expected to run a third night on their own. At the end of the ten weeks, there is a 5k to celebrate. And as dorky as it sounds, I’m kind of excited.

I signed up for the Beginner’s group B where it is suggested that you run between one to three minutes at a time. Hopefully, by the end of the clinic I’ll be running that 5k all in one go. We’ll see. For now, this my opportunity to get back to running and stick with it. My aunt will be my accountabilabuddy, and so will this blog.

So, even though I’ve promised to come back here again and again, I am doing it this time. Starting again.

For more than just blogging. It’s been almost two years since I stopped running.

But now, I’m married, I’m stable, and I’m ready to get back in it.

For my honeymoon (in March) I want to look amazing. I want to look as good as better than I did when I met my husband. I want to have energy again. I want to be able to run races again. I want to lose weight.

So tonight, I am not going to watch Big Bang Theory reruns (again). I am going to tear myself away from Breaking Amish. I’m going to ignore the dishes by the sink (for now). I am going to put on those dusty running shoes and get out in the beautiful fall weather.

Wish me luck.

And I could list all the things that helped make that happen (fiance, promotion to a higher stress job, living alone for a year, living with a man, etc, etc), but today I realized just how far I’d fallen.

Of course I saw it in my pant size (not so slowly) going back up and the way my body looked in the mirror, but not until I revisited my past weight-loss support website did I realize how fast I’ve put the weight back on. In one short year, I gained back 40 pounds! That’s dangerous territory, folks. If my upcoming wedding weren’t enough to kick my ass into gear, this scary fact definitely is.

I also miss running.

So tonight is my first night riding the fitness wagon again.

Expect to see a lot more of me (in a figurative sense as my new webcam sucks), ladies and gentlemen.

I did get outside on Tuesday. I only ran to keep from being flattened in the middle of intersections, but I knew I’d have to work back up to running after being away for far, far too long.

The weather wasn’t really that bad except for the wind.

While I probably should repeat the whole adventure today, I’m not gonna. And you can’t make me. It’s gross outside. It’s gross inside. As much as I hate to say this (because it’s not true) I need to stay home and get things done here instead.