Workin it out

It’s been a minute since I updated and the reason is twofold- one, I’ve been busy with Ramona, the job hunt, and personal correspondence, and two, I hadn’t actually gotten up to start my C25k program yet and I felt like a loser since I said I would do it. So I’m back because I actually have some time tonight and I actually got up and ran this morning.

My lack of running this week wasn’t so much laziness as much as it was bad circumstances. The hardest part of this morning workout routine is fitting Ramona into the equation. I don’t want to use an alarm because my goal is to NOT wake her up when I get up to leave. This means I sometimes sleep in too late to have time to work out and get a shower and breakfast and all those good things in before work. (That was Tuesday.) Sometimes, Ramona wakes up when I do and wants to nurse, meaning I can’t go anywhere because she’s attached. I could just give her a bottle but I feel guilty leaving her with Joe when she’s awake because he already gets limited sleep. I know he wouldn’t be mad about it, but I just don’t think it’s fair. So I stay with her. (Monday and Wednesday.)

Today the stars aligned and I was able to go. Ramona woke up around 5:45 and wanted to nurse. She did and fell asleep. I detached her and got up and went to the bathroom. When I came back, she was still asleep, so I was good to go. I had put my running clothes in the living room and threw them on quickly, stepped outside and turned on my mp3 player. I had downloaded this goofy musical podcast that lines up with the C25k program. Basically a DJ mixed some techno type music to coincide with your run and it makes a noise so you know when to run and when to walk. I had downloaded both week one and week two, but when I checked my Zune I only had week two. I figured whatever, I’ll just skip week one because it’s not that hard anyway. So I went out and did it. I’d like to say I felt awesome, but I’m so out of shape I could barely breathe during the running portions. And it wasn’t like I was out of breath, it was like I couldn’t physically get enough air in my lungs during the exercise. But, I’ve started out there before. I expected it. It will get better. And I felt great that I did it and ran looking at the vast beauty of the mountains and desert while enjoying some quiet morning solitude and thought about my life. There has certainly been a lot to think about lately and not too much time to think about it.

Anyway, I highly recommend the DJ Beatsmith podcast for the C25k. The music is forgettable and kind of crappy, but it’s good for a beat to keep you going, and the best part is that since it tells you when to switch from a running to walking interval, you aren’t staring at a stop watch or whatever to know when to switch. I think that part is usually something that discourages me. I hate keeping track of how many intervals I’ve done in my head and when I see how many seconds are left I get all worked up about it. It felt much easier when I didn’t have that going on.

So, while this week hasn’t gone as I was hoping with running, I can definitely go over the weekend and I have Monday off so I should be able to fit in two more runs of this week and start the next week (especially if I can get out Friday morning.) Also, due to my inept podcast uploading I am already a week ahead of the game!