A Whole Half - Week One

Maybe I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s as true now as the first day I said it: I need goals. I am a completely goal-oriented person. I recently took the Strengths Finder test (which I highly recommend all of you taking - seriously, stop reading my blog, head to a bookstore or Amazon and buy the book. The test is really enlightening) and it listed me first as an Achiever. I’m not sure if it put this strength first because it was my strongest or because it was listing my strengths alphabetically, but either way, I am an Achiever. I do best when I have a set goal that I can achieve. In light of this knowledge, I’m setting two goals for myself (lofty, I know).

First, I am training for the OKC Memorial Half-Marathon. I know that when I’m regularly exercising I feel better about myself - I have a more positive outlook on life, I’m more productive and I’m more fun to be around. Plus I don’t feel like a walking jello mold, which is always a bonus. This week I started following a training schedule that should get me ready for the half marathon by the end of April. I know that seems like a long way away, but I’m really out of shape and I don’t trust myself to be ready any sooner than 6 months from now. Hopefully that will be enough time for me to work my way up to 13.1 miles!

Second, I plan to blog about this adventure. I want to remember my feelings and struggles and I want all of you, my friends and family, to join the ride. It’ll probably get ugly. I’m pretty sure that there will be some failures along the way. There will be moments of pain, moments of pride, moments of ridiculous girly emotion. I’m also hoping that the pressure of announcing my intentions to all my faithful blog readers (both of you) will inspire me to keep at it and not give up. Because no one wants to feel like a failure, right? Right. So let’s get things started on the right foot! Welcome to the new blog series 

A Whole Half

Week 1

I always feel like the first week of any sort of workout routine is the easiest. The first day is the hardest, but after that you love the feeling of exercising every day and you’re glad to head to the gym after a long day at work. This week has been no exception. I started off by doing an hour of yoga on Monday night, which the schedule lists as “Stretch and Strengthen” day. If yoga doesn’t stretch me and strengthen me, I don’t know what does! I was crazy sore for at least two days after the yoga. 

On Tuesday I was supposed to run 2.5 miles. I did a solid 1.2 miles before I had to walk some, but then got in another .75 miles or so after walking for a couple minutes. The schedule said it was okay to walk as much as you needed because no one would care in the end whether I walked the entire half marathon or ran it. But I would care. I want to run it, dang it! I wasn’t thrilled with my performance on Tuesday, but since I haven’t run in ages I think that it could have been much worse.

Wednesday was a cross training day, so I logged in 30 minutes on the bike. I find the stationary bike to be extraordinarily dull, but I amused myself by listening to the Newsies and imagining that the cute guy on the bike next to me was staying on his bike extra long to work up the nerve to ask me out (of course he wasn’t, but I had to find some way to pass the time, right?) Maybe one of these days I’ll hit the pool for my cross training, but I’m not sure I could swim for 30 minutes straight. That sounds pretty intense.

I was pretty dang proud of my performance on Thursday. After barely clocking in a mile on Tuesday, I wasn’t getting my hopes up. But I ran the full recommended two miles! That made me feel very good, because I think it’s been about a year since I’ve actually run two miles. Two miles used to be such a small task for me. Boy have I regressed! But it’s okay, I know that if I could do it once I can do it again. 

I have a lot of blisters on my toes. I forgot about this. Not cool. Maybe I need new shoes. Or maybe I need to learn how to run right. Or maybe I just need to toughen up and wait until my toes grow callouses and don’t care about the abuse I’m dealing out to them. 

Friday’s my rest day and Saturday is another cross training day. Sunday is when I’ll do my long run, which is 3 miles this week. I’m pretty sure I can do it, but I’m still a little nervous. Fortunately, even if I don’t run the whole thing I can just try again the next time. And me screwing up will make for much better reading, won’t it? Cheerio, friends.