Tag Archives: running

E is for Exercise

I do a lot of exercise. Believe it or not, I even like it! I’ve been a walker for a lot of years. For most of my walking miles, David has been with me and I think of it as our alone time where it’s just us and no distractions. But even when David hasn’t been home, I still walk.

walk

I was waiting to lose down to a certain weight to start running again. I used to run a lot in the early 1990s but felt like I was just too heavy to run now even though my walks were getting faster and faster and I had friends on the runkeeper app encouraging me to just run.

When we moved here, I left the scale behind. Because I had no idea if I was at the magical number that would allow me to begin running, I just started running. And it was hard. No, it was HARD. 😀 I ran quite a lot of distance back in the day and I just don’t remember it being so hard back then. Of course I was 25 years younger so that could’ve had something to do with it. But I persevered telling myself, “pretty soon, this will be your warm up”.

run

Now, I’m not there yet but I have been able to to gradually increase my mileage and I’m now up to two miles a day. Best of all, I’m getting air all the way down to the bottom of my lungs the whole run. Which is great since I like to breathe.

And cycling. How I love that. I’ve been doing that twice a week since I got my bike. I go a little further each time and it’s just fun.

Every day living here in Downtown San Jose, involves a lot of exercise. Unless I have the dog or something really heavy, I always take the stairs. Our apartment is on the third floor and the garage is even one floor further down. I walk every where downtown. Library, grocery store, post office, dinner. It’s great. I’ve been more active here than I have been in a lot of years.

And I like it. I really do. I love feeling strong when I’m walking down the street. I love feeling accomplished when I get done with a run or bike ride. I know this is good for my health but it’s also good for my mind. I am a rare person who doesn’t wear headphones while exercising. I have deep discussions with my inner self and I come to a lot of conclusions, make a lot of plans this way.

If you don’t exercise every day let me encourage you to give it a try. Even just a ten minute walk to start is better than nothing at all. Then work your way up little by little until you are enjoying more physical and mental well being. You’ll be glad you did! 😀

Unintended

So you know I made a deal with my BFF’s husband to run a marathon next year. And I’ve been gearing up to start running again. But…I’ve been way too afraid to go out the door and run. I was afraid someone would laugh at me.

On Saturday, there was a run here, in Bartlesville. I hadn’t heard about it so I googled it when we got back from walking Boo Boo. Turns out it was even a 10k which used to be my favorite distance.

I looked at the map and I saw that it followed the Pathfinder north and behind the police station before ending up Downtown again. Hmmm. I have seen the Pathfinder but never really knew where to get on it.

When we were driving back from grocery shopping, I asked David if we couldn’t turn on the road that would take us to that spot on the race map and he did. Guess what? There’s an entrance to the Pathfinder with a parking lot and everything!

Suddenly…

I figured that if I went down to the Pathfinder to run, there would be way fewer people to see me. And that’s what I did today.

Today was supposed to be a recon mission. Check it out, see how it goes, who was there. I planned to walk and loaded a 60 minute Latin walking file onto my iPod. I planned to run tomorrow provided the Pathfinder was suitably empty.

When I turned on my iPod, it wasn’t the Latin walking workout, it was the Jeff Galloway 30/30 Run/Walk workout. So…I decided to go for it.

It went well! Yes, running feels weird at this weight. I haven’t run since 1999 and I was considerably lighter then. But the 30 seconds running alternating with 30 seconds of walking made it into a workout that I could do.

Wee hoo! I was so excited to run. I’m really going to run a marathon. But first up is The Color Run in June. 🙂

Getting ready to run

2 Replies

When I was down in Texas last week, my best friend’s husband said, “Let’s run a marathon”. Without hesitation, I replied, “okay”.

I haven’t run with any regularity since the late 1980’s when we lived in Chicago. I was a member of the Chicago Area Runners and I ran all the time. I loved it, especially the 10K distance.

I’ve never run a marathon (my longest was a half-marathon) but it’s on my bucket list.

I ordered the book that Jason is using called 4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon and it was waiting for me when I got back to Arkansas.

I remembered when I had been running before, I used Jeff Galloway’s program and I ordered his book, too.

I am way too heavy to run a marathon any time soon. The Little Rock Marathon runs right past our house here and it’s the first weekend in March so that’s the target. For next year.

This morning, I joined the Little Rock Roadrunners Club. They have a meeting right around the corner next week which I plan to attend.

One more important thing I need is a great pair of shoes. A pair of shoes for an old, fat woman. LOL! Once I get my club membership packet (which includes a discount card) I’ll be going to a local running store and having them fit me with shoes.

Just like when I wanted to do kettlebell swings and got professional training, I’m smart enough to know that shoes make ALL the difference in the world.

I’ll never be fast but, with a great pair of shoes, I can run forever.

So, getting ready to run. I’m excited. It’s quite the challenge.

And now that I’ve put it out there for everyone to see, I have to do it. 😉