I'm back!

Well, its been awhile since I blogged. I’d love to say I’ve been working out, faithfully working towards the Small Goals to Running Goal. But no, I’ve done more days of sitting on my bum than exercise, sadly.

However, I am happy to report a mini-success. About 3 weeks ago I decided I really must, no really must, get back on it. I’ve totally out of shape, I’m fat, and my dog is so frickin annoying when she doesn’t get exercise. So that’s 3 good reasons to get on it. So, I came up with a new (and more realistic considering my fitness level) couch to 5K plan. Its actually a 25 week plan that starts with 5 weeks of walking and ends with my original 5K goal, which is the one in April. (yes, I know, a year later, so sad) I’m starting out slow partly just to get in the habit and partly because my knee can’t take the stress of trying to run (well, nor can the rest of my body). And walking is easy enough and won’t make me hurt the next day, thus allowing me to keep it up.

Why am I writing about this 3 weeks later? Because I wanted to wait until I did it for 10% of the time so I could report a success, not just a “I’m gonna do this”. (which I've been doing it for 2.5 week) So, my plan is walk T, Th and one other day (probably during the weekend but open.) I’m hoping to go to gym M W with the hubby and ideally, also one day during the weekend. Yes, I know, that’s six days of activity, which is a big huge step from zero days of activity. But note I said “hoping”…. I figure lets plan for 6 and get in 4 for sure.

Of course, at some point once I’m actually running (versus walking or even running 1-2 minutes) I’ll have to swap things around because I know going to the gym M/W and running T/TH will be too much. But, I’ll cross the bridge when I get to it. In the meantime, I’m trying this and we’ll see how it works.

This morning’s walk was a little rough – a bit stiff from last night’s workout + the cold weather wasn’t great, but I made it. Still have that tightness in my outer calf/shin area. Hoping it will get better with more activity……

Small Goals Check In

Well, I haven't met my small goals completely, but I am walking more and I've joined Gold's Gym. (I had joined Club Fitness prior, but they are always crowded and its not really very nice, so that was an excuse in the way that I've removed)
This month's goals are to:

• increase my cardio stregnth
• walk at least 6 miles a week (in or outdoors)
• do cardio workouts 3 days a week

I'll check in and let you know how its going.

Quick update...

Didn't take any walks over Memorial Day weekend - but I was at the lake walking up and down a huge massive hill, so its not like I was sitting on my bum the whole time. Got a little lazy for a day or two after that but am back in the swing of things.... walked yesterday and today. Hoping for a long walk tomorrow!

New Game Plan

Ok, clearly the 5k in April didn't work out. I got caught up with school stuff and didn't put as much effort into training....blah blah, excuses excuses. Then I actually did hurt my knee (totally gave out - fell to the ground - ouch) Now, its less than 3 weeks before I leave for Europe and I've decided on a new game plan: small goals.

Goal 1: Walk a mile (at least) 6 days a week from now until I leave. Good for doggie, good for my knee, good for my energy level. Not that much time committment. I did it yesterday morning and today and honestly, its not that hard to squeeze in the 20 minutes. (Between the dog potty time and the fact I can't walk all that fast, particularly first thing in the morning when my limbs and knee is all stiff, I need to allow for 20 minute walk.) However, even with that small walk, I do feel much better. Also, Nat has a Walking Incentive Program at work and this ties in nicely.
Goal 2: Try to walk faster to as close to a 15-16 minute mile as I can.
Goal 3: Include a couple long walks to gear up for all the walking we'll do in Europe. I want to add in at least one 2-3 mile walk a week, hopefully more, but at least one a week.
Goal 4: Walk my arse off in Europe. (easy to obtain, as we aren't renting a car)
Goal 5: Walk 1 and 1/2 mile 6 days a week until the end of July.

And that's all I'm going for at this time - at the end of July I will assess how I've been doing. Hopefully I've exceeded my goals and my knee is much stronger and I can even think about starting a running program because I do have one more goal - run an easy mile by the end of the year. ("easy mile" defined as I'm not limping during or afterwards) Of course, I still want to run a 5K, but I don't want to overwhelm myself - my knee just can't handle even thinking about that much stress right now. So, small goals it is. I'll keep you posted.