Virtual 5k

For some reason, the past year or so I have wanted to "be a runner".  This is coming from a person who has on multiple occasions said "Unless you have a gun to my head, I don't run".  I have no idea what has changed in my brain...a wire lose perhaps?  Either way I have decided that I will become a runner...I think I owe it to myself, I need to prove to myself that I can do this thing that I have NEVER been able to do in my life.  To that end, I let a couple of friends convince me to sign up for the Baltimore Shamrock 5k.  To help get myself ready I decided to sign up for the monthly virtual 5k event that a fitness page I follow on Facebook has organized.  I found it just a couple of days ago and decided what the heck, I may as well sign up.  Well today was the first Virtual 5k of the 12 in Coach Sara's series.  I did it...it was more walking than running, but I did it.

Here is where I ask for advice from those of you who are runners...I seem to always get shin cramps when I try to run.  I think I probably need to stretch or warm up better...but I don't know what stretches or warm ups to do to prevent this.  Any suggestions would be great!!

I shared the event with the two friends who convinced me to sign up to RUN the Shamrock 5k, and who have been trying to talk me into a 1/2 marathon.  Remember I can't even run a full 5k at this point...and they want me to sign up for a 1/2.  That said, I've been seriously considering it.  Now the Shamrock won't be the first 5k I've ever done...but (hopefully) it will be the first one I've ever run.  I've walked plenty of events, the Baltimore 10 miler, and the 9/11 Baltimore Run to Remember last year, the Komen 3 day in 2010, and plenty of others mixed in there, but I've never in my life been capable of running 3.1 miles all at once.  I can only remember one time in my life that I've ever even been able to run 1 mile.  So...couch to 5k will become my best friend (or worst enemy) over the next few weeks.  I've tried this before but I never seem to stick to it (recurring theme I'd say) so I truly hope this time is different.  I want to be able to post on March 10th, just 5 days before my 31st birthday, that I finally achieved this goal.

If you too have an interest in running, please head on over to Coach Sara's event...you can join us for the next 11 events.  Her pages are great!

MIA

Sorry I have been MIA...I have been fighting through a pretty bad cold, and darned near everything has been on hold.  I got lucky and the Pampered Chef show I had scheduled for yesterday decided to become a catalog show, so I even managed to get out of having to go do that.  It started with feeling congested and a headache when I woke up Tuesday morning and by the time I got home from work I sounded like I was trying to hack up a lung.  It only got worse from there, and I wound up staying home from work Friday to give my body some rest that I felt it really needed.  Luckily it seems like it has paid off as I am finally starting to feel "normal" (for me anyway) again this morning.  I'm still a little stuffy, but nothing unmanageable.
So, between not feeling good, being exhausted (from not feeling good) and just trying to get to work every day, I didn't get to the gym at all this week.  I'm disappointed, but I know that it was the right thing to do for my body.  I would have been coughing and hacking all over the place, plus chances are I may have made the cold more intense by not allowing my body the chance to recover and heal itself with rest.  That's what I'm telling myself anyway.  This being the first morning that I feel normal again, I'm going to see how today goes, but hopefully I will be going to the gym tomorrow morning.  Nothing crazy, just some light cardio and some light abs/weight work, but I need to get myself back into the swing of things.
Also with being sick, for me, comes not watching what I eat.  I have always been one who eats for comfort, and being sick is no exception.  It is another step along the way, and I'm sure that even when I do find my inner healthy person that soup and grilled cheese on a cold rainy day, or a sick day will still be part of my life.  I just read something about having to give up the all or nothing attitude, and it kind of made me smile.  It made me realize that I am not the only one out there who has to deal with that, and that brought me some comfort.  Did I make good food choices this week, nope.  Did I reach my exercise goals this week, nope.  I didn't even track my food most of this week, but that does NOT mean that I can't still achieve my goals.  I have come to the realization that this is just as much a mental battle as it is a physical one.  While that makes it twice as hard, knowing is half the battle, right?  Now I'm off to plan my meals for the week, and make up my grocery list.

The best laid plans...

This morning at 5:30am I was supposed to be meeting my friend at the gym.  What was I doing?  Apparently hitting the snooze button (for the second time) without even waking up.  Yeah...fantastic.  Rather than beating myself up over it, other than the fact I stood up my friend, I am taking it as a learning experience.  The only time that I hit the snooze and don't remember doing it?  When I am DEAD asleep, I'm talking hard core snoozing.  I could take it as a failure, let it convince me that I should just hold off until next week to start over, but NO.

I am looking at it as my body doing what it needed, and I'm planning on being at the gym tomorrow.

Does it mean I probably won't get 5 workouts in this week?  Yup.  Is that the end of the world?  Nope.  4 is better than none and I have to remember that if I am going to break myself of that old "all or nothing" habit.

Missing my planned workout isn't a good thing, but it doesn't mean that I can't still do things to help myself get healthier.  It doesn't mean that I can't still make good food choices and work on my goal of tracking those food choices (good and bad) which is just as important to getting healthier.  It's a start, right?

On a totally unrelated note, Ray Lewis announced today that he will not return to football after the Raven's season ends.  This hit me far harder than I thought it would.  I knew that it would be emotional when the day finally came, but I had no idea.  I felt like I had just found out that Santa wasn't real.  It has me even more grateful for the friend who bought me a ticket to this Sunday's game...I will get to see what is very likely Ray's last home game ever.  I know that I will be among the bunches of people who will likely be very emotional.  Ray has been the face of the Ravens for as long as I can remember and football without him will not be the same.  You will be missed Ray...and I hope that the Ravens have sense enough to offer you the chance to coach.

Photo courtesy: http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Ray-Lewis-Final-Ride/238ee0b4-d565-4a96-ac04-dbc1471d1f7f