Day 29 of Training

I'm on a good schedule that works for me right now. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday I "run". Tuesday & Friday I walk and Sundays I don't do anything. That's working out well for me. Everytime I run I try to push it a little more.

The timer thing wasn't working out so I switched to distance. "I'm just going to make it to this tree" or "to the end of the field" or "to this mailbox". I think that's motivating me a little more than trying to run for a certain amount of time. Maybe it's because I'm a visual person, not sure. I can see where I have to be and I see me getting closer to my goal. I feel like I have a reason to run or a place to run to, rather than just running to try & make it to a time. Going with this... I've done really well!! I'm pretty excited.

I don't know how long I'm running but I can say that I am running MOST of the the 3 miles now. When I say "most" I mean... more than half of the 3 miles I'm running. The stretches that I run are longer & longer each time. Pretty good for being me & all!

I have a friend that I went to Junior High with that's been emailing me. She's helped me a lot to create a good diet that can accomodate all of my needs. (I found out I wasn't getting enough carbs & protein. I'm eating more "whole foods" like oats, cooked wheat kernels, nuts, veggies, etc....) I'm also trying to tone everything up & build up my strength a bit and she's been super helpful. I don't have all of the right equipment yet but for the level I'm at right now, I think I'm OK. I've added weight training to my schedule and I'm enjoying that. I don't want to be superwoman but in the future I would like to be toned. I don't want to be flabby anywhere. After 4 kids... I'm done with the "I'm still trying to lose my baby weight from the last 3 kids" look that I've got goin' on.

Saturday while I was running I thought I was doing SO good. I had just ran my longest, I started to go into my walk and an old lady breezes right past me. She's listening to her iPod, smiles huge at me... I may have glared at her, not sure. I felt awful all of a sudden. I felt pretty pathetic that an old lady can run like that & I can't. How sad. I was contemplating this and my neighbor that I'll be running with on the Wasatch Back smiles & waves at me as I walk by. I'm not sure why but it just made my morning. All of a sudden I was fine again. I just thought... that's what I'm trying to do. I'll be like that lady when I'm old.

I do get side tracked sometimes but then I look back and I see where I'm at now and it's nice to feel like everyday I do a little bit better. I get impatient sometimes and I have to remind myself that it's just going to take a while to train my body to do something that it's NEVER done before. I've never done any kind of sports, I used to skip Gym class in school, I've never WANTED to do anything like this before. It's exhilirating to know how just last week I couldn't go as far as I can this week. It relieving when I feel like my lungs are working more efficiently. I can feel them building strength and they can go longer and longer before I start to feel the burn.

I found out that one of my neighbors is also going to run the Ogden Marathon so we've made plans to go down together. She's a lot faster than me so I know she'll be running ahead of me but it's nice to feel like I'll know someone there. Makes it not so scary for my first time.

I'm doing my first 5K on August 22nd. I might be walking a lot of it but that's OK. This particular run is supposed to be all about women & loving your body. I figure... that's what I'm trying to do so it sounded like a good fit for my first race. My Mom started walking 3 miles and I've talked her into doing it with me. It's going to be a lot of fun.