Get movin', mama.

Remember a little over a year ago when I started running?  Not because I particularly had an interest in doing so, but because I made a vow to myself to do what I can to stay healthy for my husband and kids?  That went ok for awhile.  I kept up with it nearly all of last summer, running two 5Ks over the summer, and another one in early October with my sister-in-law, Katie.

That was in early October; it all fell apart after that.  We went to Disney.  It was Halloween.  It got cold.  It was the holidays.  It was even more cold.  It snowed for 439 days in a row (at least it felt that way)  All excuses, I know.  But they were excuses I was willing to accept.  I was sporadically doing the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, but I wasn't being as consistent as I should have been.

Spring was finally just around the corner, and a friend asked me to run a 5K with her.  Not just any 5K (because if it had been just any old 5K I would have immediately told her no, there was no way I'd be ready)...but this dear friend has watched her dad battle leukemia for over a year.  She has been by his side for multiple hospital stays, testing, treatments, and transfusions.  There were times when she was going through that when I felt helpless..I would do what I could, I'd drop off food, take her daughter for a few hours so that she could go to the hospital...but I always felt like I wanted to do more.  So this 5K that was for leukemia?  That I could do. 

I ran it. It wasn't pretty since I literally had not run since October, but I did it in 38 minutes.  But I knew after running it, I wanted to do something else.  I needed to try something new, something more structured.  I know myself all too well, and it's way too easy for me to make excuses to not keep up with running.

So I finally took the plunge and signed up for a fitness class through work; it's called total body fusion and it meets 2 days as week for 50 minutes each class.  It works for me for two reasons: #1, I paid for it (really reasonable, but still) so I'm more inspired to go to get my money's worth out of it.  #2 - it's in the middle of the day, not during my "home" time.  The home thing was a big part of it for me before, I felt guilty (even though I shouldn't) for going out to run when I was at home with the boys.  After being away from them all day, the guilt was eating away at me when I would leave them again to go do something for myself.  But doing something during my lunch hour eases that guilt right up!

I don't love the class, and I think I just have to accept the fact that I will never love any type of workout.  I think that was another issue for me; I keep waiting to have that "a-ha!" moment that other people seem to have...the one where they find something that clicks for them and they look forward to it, and crave it when they can't do it.  I'm not going to lie...I hate every minute of being in that class.  I hate the sweating, I hate the tiredness, I hate hauling myself there when frankly, I would rather take a leisurely lunch break to myself.  But, I will do it because what I don't hate is knowing that I  am helping myself, and through that, helping my family in the long run. 

image courtesy of theworkoutmama.com

Hitting the running wall

So...running.  Yeah, summer was not my friend.  I hate being hot, I hate sweating, so there was essentially nothing about running in the warmer weather that was appealing to me.  My mother-in-law was kind enough to give me her old treadmill that she no longer used, but I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would.  I had visions of watching some episodes of the Real Housewives, while gleefully running in my nicely air conditioned basement and simultaneously shouting at the TV about Theresa's latest antics in NJ.  The reality was that the treadmill hurt my body, the air conditioning wasn't even that refreshing when there's no air blowing against you while running, and it was distracting trying to watch TV and not fall backwards off the treadmill, all at the same time. 

Aside from that, I was also growing frustrated with the fact that running was not helping the entire reason I started doing it in the first place (which is because I have high blood pressure); what happened instead was that my blood pressure has started to increase since running.  What a ripoff! I felt betrayed by the medical community! Liars.

I will take any chance I get to use lines from Austin Powers in every day life.

I know, I know.  There is obviously not a direct correlation there...I know that my blood pressure did not go up because I started running.  But it is such a slap in the face to see absolutely no improvement (at this point, I'd even take it just staying the same over going up!)  So that got me down, it really did.  I won't insert a self-pity party here, but it definitely played into my lack of motivation to get out there in the month of August.  

So, as you saw in my last post, I muddled through that 5K.  It wasn't pretty, but I did it.  Now the problem is, that I haven't done it since then. Zip. Zilch.  Nada.  Not a single step of running have I done.  Between feeling defeated by my blood pressure, Jake starting school, and having some busy weekends, it just hasn't happened.  But, it stops here.  I'm back in the saddle as of this week.  I went out last night and did 2 miles without stopping, which was better than I had anticipated considering it's been 2.5 weeks of sedentary behavior.  I hope to get out at least one other time this week, hopefully 3, since the weather is supposed to continue to be cool. 

Steelers 5K and Kids' Kickoff Event

Working a bit backwards catching up on posts here, but a few weeks ago I ran a 5K with my friend, Brett (the father of Jake's on-again, off-again girlfriend Maddie from preschool) and immediately following the 5K, the kids participated in a 40 yard dash on Heinz Field. 

Leading up to this race, I had been struggling a bit with running and my interest/motivation in continuing to do so.  But that's a separate post for another time. Back to the race. Despite a few kid illnesses, I've been pretty healthy for the past few months then, of course, OF COURSE, I managed to get some type of wicked head cold/sinus infection that week.  What started out as annoying mid-week escalated to full-blown miserable by Friday night.  I even contacted someone from the race to see if Brian could run in my place the next morning if I couldn't make it.  He could have done that, but of course, that morning, I was stubborn and convinced myself that once I got there and got going, I would feel much better.

My smile here is totally for the sake of the kids.

Yeah, that never really happened.  It didn't help that it was about 72 degrees at 9am and 95% humidity.  It is astounding the difference that the humidity can make, I felt like I couldn't breathe between being stuffy from the cold and having a cough and the humidity weighing down my lungs.

But---we finished!!  In just over 35 minutes, and that's with stopping to walk briefly 3 times (2 walk breaks on hills, one because I was having a coughing fit and had to stop for a minute to work that out) 

Brian was manning both of our kids and Maddie, here are some pics of them being cute in and around the stadium while Brett and I ran:

 I was in a bad mood by the time we finished if we're being honest; I was mad at myself for being so stubborn and insisting on running and mad at myself that I had to stop and walk those few times.  Then I found a tray of cookies being passed out and felt a bit better.  Then, it was time for the kids event and any amount of foul mood I had was gone in an instant.  The whole day was worth it to see those kids on the field, it was absurdly adorable. 

unfortunately blurry, but that's Jake slightly to the right in the jersey

Then, just when I thought we had already achieved maximum levels of cuteness, I was alerted to the fact that Liam had become an overnight celebrity: his pictures were featured on the steelers site!! You can actually see them here, pictures 23 and 24 and here they are as well:

Color Me Rad!!

It took a lot of effort to get that green paint out of my hair.

I posted back in April about how I started running and was trying to get in shape to run a 5K. This is a quote from that original post, where I talk about my goal for the 5K:

 I signed up for a 5K on June 9th; I don't have full confidence that I will be able to run the entire thing by then at all, but even if I can do some, I'll consider it a win.   

I'm proud to report that I should have had more confidence in myself; I ran that whole thing!! :)  I had been able to run the 3.1 miles at my house twice prior to the 5K, so I knew I was capable of doing it, but of course, I was nervous that I would choke and not be able to do it that day.  Big shout-out to my running partner that day, Lisa, as we both kept with each other's pace and completed the whole thing without stopping.  If I hadn't had her, I might have been tempted to walk for a bit of it (especially during the part we had to run on gravel, which made me very nervous!  It would totally be my luck that I'd finally start doing something physical, then break my ankle for the summer)

crossing the finish line

we survived!!

me & Lisa

Aside from the sense of accomplishment I felt, the best thing about doing this race was crossing the finish line and seeing Brian, the boys, and my mom there, cheering me on (with a homemade sign and everything!)  They are the whole reason I started running in the first place, so I loved having them there. 

love these boys.

Jake shows his enthusiasm for the race.

my mom, me, Liam, Brian, Jake

 In case you can't see it in the pics, the sign says "Mommy is RAD, Go Dodging, We're Proud of You".  When I first started going out to run, Jake would call it "dodging" instead of jogging....cutest thing ever, so we have stuck to calling it that :)

I plan to keep up with my "dodging", and maybe...just maybe, sign up for another 5K at the end of summer :) 

RUN FOR IT!!

I started running.  Not because someone was chasing me, not because I was frantically trying to catch a bus downtown, and not because I was trying to stop one of my children from hurting themselves or each other.  Just to run.

If you're wondering why this is significant information, you must not know me all that well. Basically, I lived by this motto:

My dislike of most physical activity, particularly running, dates back to high school.  These were some of the conversations I would have with my gym teacher:

"If I walk the mile instead of running it, will I lose points?" (when the teacher said no, I would not lose points as long as I went the whole mile, I couldn't figure out why all of the fools around me were about to get all sweaty and out of breath, when they would get the same grade regardless?)

"If my selected activities for this term are ping pong and walking the track, will I still receive an A?" (teacher said yes, I would still receive an A...I think we all know what activities I stuck with)

My personal favorite: my senior year, my gym teacher told me that he was giving me extra points in the class that day because he had never seen anyone put more effort into avoiding the ball during volleyball, and by his calculations, I probably used up more energy doing that than anyone else in the class who had actually participated.  I'm such an overachiever!!

Get the picture?

Ok, so I don't exercise.  I hate being hot.  I hate being sweaty.  I hate the fact that my lungs feel like they're going to explode when I do more than sprint for the bus.  But-I also hate the thought of having something bad happen down the road because I'm lazy.  I hate the thought of my kids visiting me in the hospital because I was lazy.  I hate the thought of not setting a good example for them about the importance of fitness because I'm lazy.

I have high blood pressure (thanks, family history!) so I'm at an even higher risk than other women to develop heart disease.  We do our best to feed our family healthy meals, but I have a sweet tooth that just won't stop.  So....for myself, and for my family, I decided to start running.

I'm doing the Couch to 5K program, which is going well so far.  I have completed 2 full weeks, going into week 3.  I've been running three times per week, for roughly 30 minutes of activity at a time (it alternates walking/running, with increased intervals each week)

I don't love it-but I don't hate it.  I don't love it-but I didn't die on the side of the road trying to do it.  So, I figure that's something for me.  Listening to music for the 30 minutes is my saving grace; Britney can get me through anything! (I'm a proud 32 year old Britney Spears lover-don't judge)

I signed up for a 5K on June 9th; I don't have full confidence that I will be able to run the entire thing by then at all, but even if I can do some, I'll consider it a win.