more on the running

I am now in the middle of week 3 of my new exercise of choice, aka running.

It has been phenominal to be able to set small goals and watch myself not only meet but definitely soar past what I thought I could do! 3 weeks ago, the thought of running a mile, non-stop, with no walking was enough to make me break into a sweat and start hyperventilating. But what a difference 18 days makes!

Friday morning, I had a bit of a sore throat, but I pressed on. I'm glad that I did, because that sore throat erupted into an all-out cold monster by evening. I wasn't able to get back into the work-out for 4 days. My worst fear. Seriously. Because I knew that if i didn't keep going, i would be much more tempted to stop.

I thought for sure that I would be weaker when I got on the treadmill to do my 2 miles this morning... so i started out nice and easy. A little walking, a little more running, and so on. Until I was in about 7 minutes. Then I thought to myself, "self, you can do this. You can go just a little bit further. You're breathing well, your legs don't hurt anymore, heck push yourself past your 2 minute running cap and see if you can finish 2/10s of the mile."

Please don't laugh! That's seriously what I was thinking. Because, you see folks, in my mind, 2/10s of a mile is equivalent to an eternity.

So off I went. Go, go, go! I got to 2/10s and realized it wasn't as difficult as I had thought it would be, so I continued. For 6 minutes. Where I stopped at reaching exactly 1/2 mile! I finished the first mile in 13 minutes, which is also a new record. The second took me a bit longer because...

My one mistake lay in the fact that I did this too early on. While I wasn't ready to die after doing that, I did feel like I might throw up and I was quite weary. I still had another 15 minutes to go. But go I did! And I feel so GREAT!

Even as I'm writing this, i'm thinking that you (my readers) will have one of 2 reactions
1) you're really proud of me and are inspired to know that you too can get in shape!
2) you think i'm just tooting my own horn and i'm annoying for flaunting my success.

Well, to the #1ers: Thank you for being proud of me and if I could ever be an inspiration to anyone (especially in this area) it would be one of my greatest accomplishments... seriously.

And to the #2ers: This is my blog, I can say whatever I want!

I'm growing ever closer to making the leap and actually registering for the 5K i was talking about doing a couple posts ago. I was disheartened at first to realize that it is indeed on the same day that I am shooting a wedding, but I think I may just do it anyways. The race would be over a good 3 hours before I needed to be anywhere ;) Plus, it's categorized as a "walk/run" which will make me feel like less of a loaf when I need to walk a bit.

So #1ers, cheer me on! I was down 4 lbs last time i checked, but it's been a week or so, so i actually have no idea if I've lost more or not. Whatevs, as long as I fit into that stinking dress, I don't care how much the scale says LOL!