“Put one foot in front of the other…”

It was really difficult not to write about running yesterday. It would seem I have caught the running bug, even though I am still kind of sucking at it. But anyway, at the end of this post, I listed out my 3 (so far) running rules. Last Tuesday night I negated rule #1. The DragonLady will run in the rain. I think temperature will be the determining factor for that one. It was hot, and the rain was light, and the run felt great. I was so stoked, even the next day that by Thursday I was convinced I could do this half marathon.

So I set out Thursday evening all fired up and ready to go, and I was good for a mile. I made it just a little over a mile, and I couldn’t get enough breath, so I dropped to a walk. I never could get my groove back after that. I was out of energy, I couldn’t get my stride right, and then I got mad. Not mad enough that I could muster the energy to run, but mad enough to ball up my fists and cry a little bit because I didn’t feel it was appropriate to yell and scream the f-bomb. By the time I straggled myself home, I was even more determined that I was going to do this…still mad.

The boy had an event at school Friday night, so I didn’t do anything but sit at the house ready to throw on some shoes and leave immediately in case he called me to come get him. This because I knew he didn’t really want to go, and I told him if he wanted to leave to call, otherwise I’d be there at 10:30. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. I was in a much better mood Saturday morning, even though I knew the day was going to be packed with busyness from start to finish, but I made sure to get me a run in while the hubby started weed-eating. I did my hill-training 5k, and made it a mile and a half before I walked and I had predetermined to make it at least to that point. Run 1.5(ish..it’s a little over), which was 2 “laps”, walk 1, then run the last. That’s 4 times up each hill. The 4th time up the last hill, I barely made it, but the key is I made it. I walked down the hill and then ran the remaining bit, so I ran in total a little over 2 miles. I broke below the 13 min mile, and managed a 12:24 pace. I was still able to mow, clean, & grocery shop before calling it an evening and watching a movie with the hubby (he fell asleep).

Sundays and Wednesdays are my rest days, so I did not exercise Sunday. Yesterday evening I had to make another grocery run (because I never made it to Whole Foods & Trader Joes over the weekend), so I decided that rather than run, I would do the elliptical and stationary bike since they aren’t dependent on whether or not it is still daylight outside. My intent was 20 min on the bike and 30 on the elliptical. I forgot the elliptical is only 20 min workouts. Anyway, I did the bike first as a 30 min warmup sporting my brand new heart rate monitor watch, and not only did I at no point in the workout feel like I was pushing it, my heart rate never got above 90. (It was 60 when I started.) I was pretty sure I was going to die on the elliptical, but my heart rate never got above 130. What I did notice was that even though I never really got winded, what was happening on the elliptical was muscle fatigue. I think that is what is killing me on my runs – lack of strength. Of course, again, it would probably help considerably if I lost another 20-25 pounds. 😉

And why not a little Christmas in June. 🙂

8 Responses to '“Put one foot in front of the other…”'

  1. When i saw your post title that was the first song I started singing before I even saw you linked it!

    • DragonLady says:

      When I am wanting to stop, I tell myself to just put one foot in front of the other, which results in me singing that song. Except for when I say “Just keep moving” which turns into “Just keep swimming… Just keep swimming…” 🙂

  2. Some days will be more challenging than others, that’s for sure. Recently, I’ve been craving anything with flour. Flour and I don’t get along.

    Thus, far I’ve been good, although I was casing the eggrolls I made for my daughter yesterday. Not sure why she did the full body block, putting her body between me and her eggrolls.

    Regarding training, some days will be more challenging than others. During those times, I tell myself it’s fine. While I still train, I usually work the same muscles, but do something different.

    I would like to enter a few figure competitions next year, but we’ll see. Not sure I’ll have the time to commit to that type of training; fingers crossed.

    • DragonLady says:

      I was in the bread aisle the other day and could smell the bread through the wrappers. Can’t recall that I have ever done that before. It smelled soooo good, but I didn’t want to pay for it so I just kept walking.

      Mmmmmm, eggrolls…. LOL @ full body block. 🙂

      I lost my motivation to run about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, and still didn’t really have it back when I started the tribe run at 6. But I didn’t have to take quite so many walk breaks, and had my best tribe run to date. Of course, that just got me stoked again. 😉

      Awesome! Go for it!!!

  3. Teeni says:

    I admire you for facing the struggles of your runs and workouts. Nobody’s perfect, but you keep at it and I think that makes all the difference. People who give up never win, but those who don’t give up will at least accomplish something. Like Molly said above, I was also singing that song as soon as I saw your title. LOL. That is still one of my favorite holiday shows. I like stop animation and the little puppets are harmless looking unlike some that scare the pants off me. Heehee. Oh, and I’ve been craving bread too. Isn’t it funny how you are more sensitive to things that you don’t have for a while, like smelling the bread? I had the same experience when I gave up dairy. A friend gave me a cookie that made me feel obligated to eat it (yeah, like I needed a reason) and all I could taste in it was the butter.

    • DragonLady says:

      Thanks Teeni! 🙂 So I made that drive to Whole Foods specifically for a particular gluten-free sandwich bread, and they didn’t have any. So I had to get my second choice, but at least TJ was right down the road so it wasn’t a total waste of a drive. Anyway, I like their one brand because it’s doesn’t have such a think hard crust on a small piece of bread.

  4. Nicole says:

    I am in admiration of your determination, lady. It’s great to read about your journey through all of this and to see you getting good out of it along the way that maybe you hadn’t anticipated finding.

    • DragonLady says:

      Thanks Nicole! 🙂 It’s definitely not where I saw myself a few years ago looking forward. But, I get challenged, and in a way that helps me lose the weight I spent 9 years packing on. 😉