Run number 1

I did my first run today. I didn't do so well, as I had at least expected to run the mile in in 15 minutes. Instead, I ran it in 25 minutes. Oh well. I'm disgusted with myself, but it gives me something to work toward. I WILL get my time down!!
I spent the first lap just walking. Laps 2-4, I walked and ran. I ran the straightaways and walked the ends. I noticed that I was huffing and puffing a LOT when I finished running, so I figure that I've got a lot of work to do in that regard. I know I'm not breathing right. I've got to work on breathing from my diaphragm, not from my upper chest. I know it sounds goofy, but another running friend told me that I need to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. You'd think that after 44 years, I'd know how to breathe, but that's not the case when it comes to running! I will work on that.

I need to work on stretches that will help me not be stiff and sore afterwards. I have experienced pain in the back of my right ankle in the past and I don't want to have it continue, so that is a point of research today.

Fitness obsession...

I haven't worked out this week, other than a martial arts class on Tuesday. I missed last night because I wasn't feeling well. I'm actually a bit bummed that I didn't make it. I feel better when I work out!
I can tell I haven't done anything because I don't feel as "sharp". I'm a bit more tired and am dragging. It's amazing how well your body responds to physical activity!

I'm taking my son to the track tomorrow morning. We're going to start working on running together. Both of us have to run a mile. It's great about being "old"...I have the same requirement as him!! While I'm not looking forward to the run, I AM looking forward to the activity first thing. I have missed it this week!

I let a friend borrow my Wii Fit, balance board and EA Sports Active, so I haven't been doing them this week. I'll get them tonight and will start back in on them tomorrow or Sunday. Probably tomorrow, AFTER I run. I have no excuses. One of my co-workers told me that for weight loss, running was probably the best thing I could do for myself. He recommended that I start running first and *then* start doing pushups. I don't quite agree with that...but I know I have to work on my core and get it strong enough to support my weight. Part of that will happen from doing crunches, the other part will come from improving my overall fitness.

I guess I need to restart my fitness goals. It's the beginning of a new month, a new 30 day Challenge to address. It's going to be a fun month!!

Training accountability

Last night, I talked to one of my instructors and asked her to help me start running and training myself to get into better shape and get ready for the possibility of testing in the future. She's in school full time and probably won't have that much time, but she suggested something really good to help motivate me. She suggested that I start posting my workouts on my blog. I'll be putting it over at my training blog (Martialartsmusings). That way, I'll have public accountability for what I'm doing.

I can do pretty much everything they ask of me in class, although in my eyes, it's not quite up to the standards I think it needs to be at. I need to step up further and do more. For example--last night, Ms. M had the kids in her Beginner's class do Roman Chairs. You put your back against the wall and slide down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Then you HOLD it for a period of time. Ms. M is super athletic and had no problems with it. I did it with the kids as I was waiting for their class to end. I could NOT go down until my thighs were parallel to the floor. A green belt pointed that out to me. I started to go down and felt a "ping!" in my right knee, so I stopped. Of course, I need to either get that "ping" looked at or work through it. What I should have done last night was to work through it. That would have been better than just doing that halfway. I have work to do to get to that point again. I WILL do it.

I sent an email to the Masters last night (and copied in a couple of people I know can also push me), asking them to please help me stay accountable for my work outs. I have a certain number of pushups and crunches that I have to do, plus I have to run a mile in ten minutes. I'm going to start working the mile aspect because I'm afraid that my years of inactivity have caught up to me. I'm severely a couch potato. I'm not afraid to do most things, but I've never seen myself as a runner. Time to break out of that mold.

If you are a reader here and you want to go over to Martialartsmusings and give a nudge or a push there as well, please feel free. There's a link in my sidebar under Martial arts blogs. If not, please nudge me here. At this point, I'm taking all the help I can get.

The halfway point

As I've mentioned before, I'm doing the Wii Active 30 Day Challenge. Today was the halfway point for me. I bumped up my intensity level to "medium' because I felt that I wasn't working hard enough on the "easy". It's a nice little program. I rather like it. I totally feel like I'm seeing results, even if my husband does tell me "it's only cellulite". I will NOT let him get me down. If I want to think I'm seeing results, then I'm going to see results! There is a LOT to be said for the power of positive thinking. I've gone so far as to condition myself to *not* get unhappy about about the running and lunges. In fact, I actually like the lunges. Okay, if I'm 100% honest, I don't like the running and the lunges, but I won't be negative about them because I feel like it'll go against what I'm trying to train.

After my workout, I went into my closet to find a shirt that I wanted to wear to karate today and decided to try on a pair of pants that I haven't been able to wear for a while. They FIT! Even better was the pair of jeans (size 18, yes, I'll mention it) that fit!! They were not comfortable, but I could get them on AND I could button them up. That, to me, is progress. I'm happy about that! It was a welcome thing to find out! I'm not ready to wear the jeans, but I can be happy that the exercise routine seems to be working out!!

I reached the halfway point today. I have two weeks to go until the finish of the "game". Once I hit that month mark, I'm going to start another 30 days. I am really happy about it. It's giving me an ego boost and I feel immensely better about myself.

Results of the first week.

I know, logically, you don't actually SEE results from working out in a short time, but...it's been officially two weeks since I started adding in weights at the Y to my pre-martial arts class workouts. I swear that I am seeing results in the mirror. I see my shoulders looking more...well, more defined!! I know it's not really something you see right away, but to me, I'm going to continue believing it. Half the battler is belief. If you believe in yourself, you will have a lot of confidence to continue. That's why I'm going to start telling myself I CAN and WILL finish a lap as I'm running around the building on Tuesday.
I have lost two pounds since I started working out daily. I have to admit that I took Friday off, despite saying that I would work out, but that's fine. I've done cardio every day since (yesterday and today) and I've also done my workout during the week. I'm starting to feel much better.

YAY! I'm last!!!

We ran before class last night. I was one of the last ones out the door and DEFINITELY the last one in from the run. We only did two laps around the building, but sheesh! I swear, I'm in class with a bunch of gazelles!! They're all MUCH younger than me and in better shape. I didn't get discouraged by the fact that I was last though...I even made a joke to Master M...I came in and told her later, "Yay! I'm last!!!" We only had to run 2 laps around the building, but man! That was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I walked most of it but did manage to shuffle myself into something resembling a run for a little bit. Master M told me to keep at it...just do my best. Eventually I'll get myself into a better place, running wise. I'll never pass a physical torture, er, test, if I don't start working on it now.

We focused on doing the forms with weights in class this week. It was a bit of a challenge to not just flail out with the weights. On Tuesday, I used 5 pound weights and last night, I went down to 3 pound weights. Before class, I ran on the elliptical for four minutes (with only ONE break!); did triceps presses, some sort of lift for the deltoids and a machine that was called a "fly". I tried to increase my reps and decrease the weight. My chiropractor told me to go for more reps, lower weight, so I listened. (yes, she *can* be trained!)

I know what I need to do to improve my overall health and fitness. It's called KEEP WORKING! I didn't do my Wii workout this morning, but I am NOT beating myself up over it. I figure yesterday was a huge workout, in terms of the weight lifting before, running and weights during, then the kicking workout (15 reps per leg, three different kicks--side, front and roundhouse) was enough to allow me to skip working out this morning. Tonight is another story. I definitely plan on working out when I get home!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Mother's Day. It's been a great day to do very little. I accomplished two things today. I got my daughter to the high school to work on her marching stuff and I walked a mile in ten minutes. In addition, I actually *ran* a little bit! I feel really good about that! I enjoyed that! I walked up around the end of the oval, ran the back straightaway to the second end of the oval and then walked the rest of the track. I did that twice. The first time, I actually managed to run sideways as well as running forward. I was trying to get Aidan to keep running. He was running with me but complained about it. I was trying to convince him that he could keep running since he's younger than me. He stopped, but that's okay. I just kept running until the end of the track. I did that twice, so I'm feeling pretty smug.

I also got Aidan to practice my first couple of Ho Sin Sul with me. He liked that. I have one and two down without much trouble. The next step is to get busy and learn 3 and 4 properly. I'll work on those at work this week. I made myself a bit of a promise--I'm going to learn my Ho Sin Sul and work on One Steps outside of class. My next step is to grab Amanda and get her to work on them with me.

SUNday

These little flowers are so bight, they appear to reflect the light. They were part of the pictures we took yesterday. I enjoyed that. I want to get out and go look for more wildflowers. I may have to wait for about another week or so in order to get some really GOOD pictures.

I'm sitting by the window, looking at the doves that keep flying up to the patio and tormenting the cat. Last week, we were sitting on the couch when a dove came up, perched on the ledge right outside the living room window and peeked in the window. We had the window open and Skeeter saw the bird. He went to the window really fast. We just laughed ourselves silly. That bird apparently wanted to find out what we were doing and Skeeter surprised them!!

Next weekend, I may actually start attempting to run. I figure I'll go to the track and start out with one lap first, then work up to two and so forth. I'm going to drag the kids with me. We might walk it first, then attempt a run. It'll be a good challenge. I don't know if the Middle School track will be open, but if it's not, the High School track will be. There are always people out at that track.
I'm setting a small goal--by the end of April, I want to confidently run 1 lap around that track. I don't know how long I want to say it should take me, but 4 laps is a mile and I should be able to finish THAT in 10 minutes. Time to work up to a ten minute mile. The whole point is to NOT get disappointed if I don't make the mile. The point is to TRY to get the quarter mile first and then work up to the mile.

What to do about stress...

I have been stressed out at work so much that I am daily experiencing headaches. I finally went down to HR and talked to her about it. She told me to get myself out of the office at my breaks and lunch time, so I actually listened. Yesterday, I made sure I didn't stay at my desk during breaks and left the building with a friend for lunch.
Today, I had an early lunch, so I went out for a walk. I used to walk with DB before he got his new job (this was last year...haven't walked for about a year now!). We would walk about 1.9 miles, I want to say. That was round trip. We did that for a few months, then got adventurous and changed our route up a bit. I think our total distance was about 3 miles. I could be mistaken. (It's been so long ago, I have fuzzy memories.)
Today I went out and walked our original route. It took me 35 minutes to walk 1.9 miles from start to finish. I feel pretty great about that! I was able to get out, get back in, change clothes AND nuke my lunch by the end of my hour! I feel good about that! I am not walking tomorrow unless I do it after I get home, but I plan on walking on Thursday again. If I play my cards right, I should be able to repeat the 35 minute walk on Thursday. If I walk every other day, I should start building up my endurance and cut my time down. Master G said that I should strive for a lower number on the mile, so it stands to reason that I could walk a mile in 15 minutes or less. If I was REALLY smart, I'd actually start RUNNING, but...there's a lot of sidewalk to run on. Need to make sure the ol' legs are in better shape first so I don't mangle my knees with a run.

Saturday news

Aidan didn't go running with the competition team this morning. He and one other little guy were there and ready to go but...the other little guy has a broken arm and is out of commission. One of the young ladies of the group doesn't like to run and they were worried that with MY guy being so small, they'd lose him, so they sent him inside with the other little guy to work with the young lady on their form. They have a competition next weekend, so that's a good thing.

I took Amanda to have a facial this morning as a birthday present. This was her first facial. She enjoyed it immensely. She was asking to do it again. hee hee. I've corrupted the silly girl. We went to Target after the facial and spent some time walking around together. I was very glad to be out with her. Some days she and I are at each other's throats, but today was different. She was relaxed and calm. It was worth it to me. I'd love to do it again some time.


I had a nice long talk with Mr. M this morning. We're closing the doors to our school and are taking up temporary residence in a different location while he searches for a way to make things work out. It's a little questionable as to whether or not we're going to keep things going on past this summer. I haven't told DB yet. He's going to find out by surprise if he reads the blog!! I've been trying to text him and call him but he's doing stuff with his family (they've got a couple of soccer players in the family). I'm going to wait and see what he says a little bit later.