Something for Me

Since having Patrick I haven't had much "me time".  Don't get me wrong, I am NOT complaining! I love my boy more than life and being a stay at home mom has given me more fulfillment than anything I've ever done.  That being said, I am to the point where I want a little time for myself.  In the past I would want to hang out with my girl friends or shop and the category of exercise would not be considered "me time". I hate hate hate exercising and I'm kinda the queen of excuses.  That being said, I am determined to get my butt in shape and live a healthier lifestyle and in doing so I am trying to embrace the exercise as my "me time".

So I signed up to run my first 5K this week.  Technically, it's my second but I don't count the first one.  I was in 8th grade and my cheerleading team ran "Race for the Cure" but I walked about half of it and I was in peak physical condition....LAME! My friend, Becca had been telling me for a few weeks how she had started running and signed up to run "Refuge for Women" on September 14th this year and how much she was enjoying running.  Although I kinda' thought she was a little crazy, my yearning for running hit me again.

Let's go back a bit...I have always been pretty athletic.  I was a cheerleader  in Middle and High School and played Volleyball in High School and all the gym class sports had always come really easy to me.  When I was cheering I never took private gymnastic lessons like all my friends had.  Instead, a few friends taught me to do a back handspring and back tuck in our back yards and I just kinda ran with it.  My High School got a Volleyball team my sophomore year and my friends decided to try out so I did too.  Turns out, I was pretty good at that too and played varsity that year (although our team was terrible as a whole haha).  That being said, I had always wanted to be "a runner".  For some reason I just thought it seemed glamorous.  And since I was good at most sports, running should be easy, right? WRONG!

I had tried running several times and gave up every time because it was hard...I always got really bad side cramps, felt like I wasn't getting enough air, my knees and ankles hurt (they are super weak from tumbling in cheerleading).  Now, when I say I "tried running" that means I ran down the street and quit.  I never ran more than 2 days in a row before giving up.  I tried having a friend call me every morning when he ran to encourage me, I ran with a friend who lived down the street but I just felt it was something I just wasn't good at.

I actually quit Volleyball because after my first season we got a new coach who told us that we would start running for conditioning training that summer before the next season started.  Guess what? I didn't go back after that day.  Yup, that's me...the girl with a bad attitude towards anything that wasn't and isn't easy for me.  I had never had to work hard at anything and didn't want to. Instead, I just gave up.

Well, once I started college and wasn't active in any sports or physical activity I was completely out of shape.  People assumed I was in decent shape because I wasn't over weight, WRONG! Once I became pregnant and since having Patrick I have been SUPER lazy with physical activity.  Now that I'm 27 I am getting a little scared that it will just go down hill from here.  And to make it worse, I still have some baby weight to get rid of (about 15 pounds).  And I don't think sitting on my rear is going to make the weight drop off or my flabby belly tighten up, do you?

So, after talking with Stephen and with some encouragement form him and Becca, I signed up for the 5K.  I have only 6 weeks to get my legs and body ready for a 3 mile run.  Now I know many people would think 3 miles is nothing.  In fact, Stephen could go run it right now with no issue but for me it's a HUGE deal!  I downloaded the "Couch to 5K" app for my IPhone and just completed my second workout! I really like this program because you start out super SLOW, which is exactly what I need.  For the first 3 workouts you walk 5 minutes for a warm up then jog 1 minute then walk 1 and 1/2 minutes then jog 1 minute, and repeat until you've done 20 minutes.  This probably sounds really easy but the first night (last night) I was only able to do half of the jogs.  But tonight I completed the workout! That's a HUGE step for me, especially because I was SUPER DUPER sore. Honestly, I am proud of myself for doing it and I am PUMPED to continue these workouts.  Normally, the app is 9 weeks of training but I don't have that long.  So, instead of running 3 times a week I will be running 6! Honestly, that's probably better for me because giving me many breaks just makes it easier to quit :)