Monday Morning Fitness Update

Well, I finished week 2 of the couch to 5 K program, but I am not feeling the love for my running abilities, so I am thinking about repeating week 2 again until the posture, breathing, etc becomes more of a habit.  I am also considering running outside instead of on the treadmill.  The weather here sucks, but I am really not enjoying the treadmill ... we'll see.

Another minor milestone or achievement or whatever yesterday.  Due to the way I am built, I need to either wear 2 bras or a sports bra and a comression tank with a built in bra.  Due to the way my brain works, I *need* to wear a t-shirt over top of that.  Except that means I totally over heat, in the gym at least.  (Maybe another reason to run outside??  LOL)

Yesterday was an "active rest" day for me, which means I bike (@ the gym, stationary bike) instead of running; and I did it in just the bra + compression tank combo, without the t-shirt (which a couple of female friends assured me looked completely fine).  I did look around the gym a bit while I was there, and there were women showing a lot more skin that I was ... but my brain is still a bit self-conscious about it.

Ona positive note, I added up my distances for January, and since January 4 I have walked/ran/biked 33 miles - 15 to go and I will have traversed the equivalent of the Panama Canal!

In celebration of that, I leave you with a few photos from the last time I was in Panama (one of my favorite places to vacation, so far)

Commitment ...

The wonderful woman who started the Operation: Cooking for Soldier On (OCFSO) (http://www.operationcookingforsoldieron.com/)  fundraiser threw a comment out about all the regional reps doing the Army Run (http://www.armyrun.ca/en/default.aspx)   in September.  I have been thinking about it since her comment, and finally committed last night "out loud" to her and a few others.  To the 5K one, not the 1/2 marathon!

I am totally not a runner, but I did download the Couch to 5K program, and completed my first work out this morning (5 min warm up, intervals of 1 min of running and 1.5 min of walking for 20 mins, then 5 min of cool down).  I worked up a heck of a sweat, felt pretty good after.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Through the magic of Wii Fit, I have discovered that I have also lost some weight.  Not much, and I am still a ways away from where I would like to be. Maybe now that I don't need a deployment ticker on the bottom here, I will add a weight loss one :o)  For the record, I would like to be about 150 lbs, and am currently sitting about 195.  The weight is a measure; I would like to be healthy, and fit better into my clothes (or even better, into new, smaller clothes!).  I really need to work on my cardio fitness.

SO, in addition to the other randomness you see here, you will also, hopefully, be getting fitness and weight loss updates.

Sunday, part II

My neighbour T and I are going to walk 15K in September in support of the local Military Family Resource Center. Now I regularly spend all day walking as part of my job, but T, not so much. So we thought maybe we'd better "practice" a bit first. The weather was decent today, and neither of us really felt like doing anything else, so we took Little Girl and T's dog Moose down to the river.

We did 2K, dropped Little Girl off at home (she is a woman of a certain age, after all!) and then did 8K more. The weather Gods smiled on us, and we didn't get rained on! Even more surprising, Moose was actually tired at the end of the day.

We (the humans) did a total of about 10K, and it felt pretty good (speaking for myself - I haven't heard from T yet since we've been home!). Hopefully this becomes a regular thing, and T has even agreed to try running part of it with me. Maybe I can get back on track for the agreement I made with The Wolf a few months ago.

See, The Wolf has been all over the place geographically so far in 2009 training. As a result of being away from his routine and his mates a lot, he was having some motivation issues regarding his PT. In a fit of temporary insanity, I agreed to be his on-line workout buddy, thinking that maybe if I was accountable to someone, I would have better dedication. After I had agreed to this, I actually looked into what military PT standards were. Sit ups - no worries. Push ups - well, I`m a little out of shape on this, but I should be able to get there fairly quickly. Run 8K - PARDON??? Oh dear, I should have looked into that bit before I agreed to anything.

I have downloaded the "First Day to 5K" podcasts from Podrunner ; they are great to listen to while doing paperwork at your desk ... *blush* ... Ahem. But I haven't actually tried running to them yet.

I was run/walking for a while. The program that worked best for me was: walk to warm up, until I felt like running. Run until I needed a break, and then walk until I felt like running again. Repeat ad naseum, for a distance of 8K. I was reducing the time between running stints, but then The Wolf came home on bloc leave in July, and I fell off the wagon. Time to get back on again!

If I can get myself into a routine again, I am going to reward myself with an iTouch. The Wolf has one, and can't say enough good things about it. It even has a running program on it. And since I keep breaking the cheap MP3 players, I guess it is time I give in and buy myself a good one!

Keep watching this space for further updates ...