A New Endeavor

For a reason I have yet to find out, I woke up in a sad state of mind this morning. I don't know if I'm just overly exhausted from my busy life, or if it was just one of those days that we females tend to have occasionally. You know the ones - when we're sad/irritable/upset for no known reason. All I have to say is, our poor husbands who have to be there for the unexpected mood swings. Luckily for mine, he was downstairs when I felt this dark cloud come on.

I've been contemplating taking up running for the last few weeks. It started with a particularly stressful week. When I had finally reached the end of my rope, I felt this sudden urge to put some tennis shoes on and just run out all of my frustrations (it passed before I got home). You see, I absolutely HATE running. I could do Pilates or Yoga all day long, and can manage to do strength training if I'm forced to. But running? I'd rather die. I've always loathed it, from the time we did the mile runs in P.E. The very few times I've started it as an adult, I've quickly reverted to "fast-paced walking," convincing myself that the results would be the same. I never stuck with that, either. But for some reason, the thought kept creeping back into my mind. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like something that would be really good for me. It would be a way for me to channel all of my negative energy from the stress of life, it would hopefully help to lower my cholesterol (which is borderline high), and I could take Toby with me and help get some of HIS energy out.

Today, I surrendered. I owe it in large part to my mom, who was enthusiastic about it from the beginning. She knows how much I despise running (and she does, too), so I knew if SHE was encouraging me to do it, then I probably should.

Because I'm likely (left to my own devices) to alternate between running for 5 seconds and walking for 2 minutes, I found an app on my phone for the Couch to 5k program. Now, I'm not saying I want to run a 5k or anything. But the app is really helpful because it tells you when to run/walk and for how long. That's for those cheaters like me, who really shouldn't be allowed to answer to themselves. It also helps by starting you out slow and gradually escalates so you can get to your desired level. Still, I was pretty sure I would get tired and cheat by walking most of the time.

So, what's the verdict? I DID stick to the app, and didn't cheat once. It was tough, and while I was doing it I was wondering why. When I got home, I was exhausted. But after about 5 minutes, I felt GREAT. I came back with a cleared mind and a new attitude. I think this just might work. And who knows, maybe one day I will run a 5k.