Just curious what you thought.
I’ve not stopped running. I’ve not stopped blogging, either. I wish I had the time to muse here more frequently – I have a backlog of post ideas and even some special requests that I’d love to address. I love to talk about parenting, career, personal struggles with time management, dreams, hobbies, ideas, even sometimes politics. But I haven’t been posting as frequently – I’ve been trading a solid bedtime for blogging time. I’ve even spent some of my free time reading books lately. Clearly I don’t have the time to blog as much as I was for a while, so shorter updates will have to be the norm. The most important thing I can do is to keep myself on my sleep schedule. My sleep schedule is important to my daily health. Getting to work on time also helps the performance reviews. Trading sleep for blogging is a bad idea.
Anyway, I have reached some of the first milestones that I set out for myself when I started running in earnest back in early April. First of all, I have run the 10K distance twice now on training runs. Second, I ran a 5K road race, and I finished it without stopping. Third, I haven’t injured myself.
Some other nice things have happened along the way.
First, doing something consistently (my average is three times per week plus 1-2 days of family activities like walks, bike rides, etc) has made it into a habit. I think I can say that I am exercising now out of habit. My husband is loving it because he is a naturally active guy. I think after about 15 weeks of effort I can say that it is a habit. I am also refusing to complain about the mild summer in Chicago because it has made outdoor exercise a piece of cake. I also refuse to stress about what I’m going to do for exercise during the winter months – I will cross that treadmill bridge when I come to it. I’m going to need a workout partner or something.
Second, I have started to see that I actually can fit fitness into my life. I was afraid I would have to give up sleep or family time or perform all kinds of gyrations to fit it into my very busy schedule. Turns out, it fits in just fine and I haven’t cut back on anything that is truly important. I really didn’t know how this was going to happen — having two small children is A LOT of the most important, sometimes very hard, and sometimes very time-consuming work that can happen in your life. I wasn’t sure how to fit fitness in with them, as I had never done that before – I went from working out religiously throughout my early twenties and up through my first pregnancy and then I stopped working out and exercising pretty much the moment that my oldest came home from the hospital, with fits and spurts in the six years that have followed. The challenge of fitting fitness into your life when your life has changed is not to be swept under the rug – it is a legitimate challenge and it is something that I am glad I figured out. It’s something very personal and it may take a few fits and starts and it may change over time as the rest of life changes, too.
Third, I have lost some inches and some weight. How much weight? I don’t actually know. At this point I’d say I’ve lost about 8 pounds. I’ve dropped almost a full size – so I’m back into some things that have been waiting around in my closet for me. I actually purchased a bikini to wear at home in the swimming pool — this is a big deal for me, as one of the things I hated about getting bigger was that I could no longer stand myself in short shorts or a swimsuit, and it just wasn’t a fun way to feel. I can see straight into my belly button again (something I hadn’t noticed, but now that I can see it I am like WOW). My c-section scar is moving to a higher place on my belly. I can tell the difference along the edges of my body, and slowly I can see it coming off toward the middle too. I have been walking around naked a lot at home, exclaiming, LOOK AT THAT! DID YOU NOTICE THAT? and my husband is pretty happy to oblige me, even if I am choosing to do it after a training run when I’m sweating.
What’s next on the horizon?
Tomorrow night I am running another 5K. This is actually the mid-week distance in my training plan, so it fits in perfectly. This weekend, my long run is 5 miles, keeping with my beginner training schedule. I am going to bike to work one day next week as a cross-training opportunity.
Next month, I am leaving for China again, so I would like to get another race under my belt before I leave. I need a 16-day treadmill/gym workout for when I am in China, otherwise I fear that I’ll slide backwards on my regimen while I am there. I also want to schedule a late Fall race to keep me motivated as the weather turns colder.
What questions do I still have?
I won’t lie when I say that I really can’t wait to lose more weight. I know that it is a long, slow, journey to do it right. But it feels really good to actually be achieving my goals through hard work a little self discipline.
I still am very conservatively approaching the running, going very slowly pace-wise, and I am curious about whether I will injure myself because I am doing something that is stupid. So I am very conservative about speed, moving up in distance, stretching, taking rest days, etc. I found that running the race with some folks I know who are real runners (like, 41 year old women who run 5K’s in under 24 minutes…not too shabby) made me think more than I wanted to about my speed. Speed is my LAST concern. I don’t care where I place, I don’t care how fast I go. That’s not why I am running right now. At some point in the future I may find it compelling to be competitive, but certainly not this year. I have a long way to go.
I am wondering if I will ever get the motivation to go to the gym to lift weights. I wonder if I could learn to love strength training. I am starting to like the treadmill better, so maybe I could actually like strength training one day, too.
I’d like to end with a couple of shout outs — first to my college buddy and Iron Man, K, who will be doing the Wisconsin Iron Man on September 13. If I ever feel wimpy about a workout I just go and read about her training schedule — recently she went and biked for 60 freaking miles in high elevations on the side of a mountain range, and then she got off of her bike and RAN another 14 miles. You go girl, you are an inspiration! I would also like to shout out to June, who is training for a marathon and who ran 12.5 miles for her long run this past weekend — WAY TO GO, June! Keep up the excellent work, and I expect that you’ll be smarter from listening to all of those fabulous podcasts during your runs. (BTW, which marathon did you decide?)
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