This has been such a great week! I've had my ups and downs over the past few months but overall I'm thrilled with the progress I've made after The Surgery. It wasn't an easy decision to hire a personal trainer since I have very little extra cash at the end of the month but I'm happy with the decision. I'm the kind of person that thrives on positive reinforcement but needs the Drill Sargent attitude when working out and am very glad that I found a trainer, within my price range, who channels Jillian Michaels while also being very supportive.
We went outside on Wednesday and alternated walking and jogging and strength activites using the city park benches for 30 minutes and she told me about a 5k coming up in October called the Color Me Rad Run, the proceeds of this 5k benefit the East Tennessee Children's Hospital, and the website describes the 5k by saying "The color starts flying at 9 am with waves of runners getting plastered with paint every 5 minutes after. You'll end up looking like a kindergarten art class gone wrong... but the Art of Running will make you feel oh so right." and also "You’ll start off with a shirt as pure and white as your grandpa's dentures and you'll soak up enough color while running to change your skin tone forever. You'll wind up looking like a pack of skittles – just make sure not to “taste the rainbow.”" Check to see if the Color Me Rad Run is coming to a city near you by visiting their website: http://www.colormerad.com/
Personally, I think it sounds like a blast and have requested the day off from work so that I can do it. Oh boy, can you believe that someone weighing 256 lbs is considering signing up for a 5k? After I got home on Wednesday I downloaded the 14 week Couch to 10k App on my Android and completed Day 1 of Week 1 yesterday! It consisted of a 5 minute Brisk Walk Warmup, followed by alternating a 60 sec. Jog/90 sec Brisk Walk for 20 minutes followed by a 5 minute cooldown and I finished it! My legs were so sore last night after 2 days of Run/Walking I even had trouble sleeping. But isn't that a good thing? When you've pushed yourself and managed to accomplish something that you never thought you would be able too! Even the pain is a good pain then. I just hope it doesn't keep me from working out after work today...although after working an 11 hour shift today it will be a accomplishment if I can force myself to workout at all, sore legs or no.
The Couch to 10k App has you ready to complete a 5k at 8 weeks which works out perfectly with the race date, October 6 and it isn't as daunting a task to complete the runs as you would imagine. The plan calls for you to workout 3 days a week where you just alternate Jogging and Walking according to the little stop watch that shows up on your screen and personally I found it easier to use the app than doing it on my own because each time I got to the point where I was gasping for breath and thinking to myself, "I can't do this," I would look down and out of the 60 seconds I had started with I would be down to just 20 seconds or 10 seconds more before switching to the 90 second walk and the thought then became, "What's 20 seconds? That's nothing! You can do this." and then it was over.
I've always wanted to be able to run like the people you see in the park or along the road while driving home and I can finally say that I'm on my way!
Hopefully, taking up running will also help my body shed a few more pounds this week too since my body is hanging onto the 12 pounds I have left before reaching my 100 lb. goal like you wouldn't believe!
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