Getting Off the Couch

I've been trying to change certain things in my life for a while. One of those things is trying to be healthier. I think for the most part I'm fairly normal and I have ups and downs with making good food choices and making regular exercise part of my life. Last November I joined a gym with one of my friends and had the goal to fit into a dress for a big party. Then a while ago we (really me) started talking about doing the Community Action Food Bank 5K for a work activity. Our boss got on board and paid for our team and thankfully one of my colleagues took over the planning and recruiting. I'm perfectly capable of doing the planning but he's more popular than me so it was much better for it to come from him. 9 weeks ago yesterday I started the Couch Potato to 5K training and little by little have been able to see a difference with my endurance and my ability to not want to throw myself down the stairs at the end of the workout. I would occasionally look ahead in the program but then I'd start to panic about how I could go from week four to week five but the amazing thing is THAT YOU CAN! Somehow someway you can go from running 8 minutes in a row to running 20 minutes (that week I even read the program wrong and ran for 25 minutes). Also during my "training" I was on vacation in NYC and got the opportunity to run in Riverside Park which was a super awesome treat. I also realized it is WAY easier to run at sea level than up in this elevation.

Last Saturday I met 20 colleagues at 7:30 in the morning for our big run and here's me crossing the finish line. My goal was to run the entire thing and I DID IT!


When I'm running the first 10 minutes are pure hell and then somehow I can disconnect my brain from what I'm doing to my body and can get through the rest of the run but on Saturday at the 1.75 mile marker as I was about to fall over and die Jay-Z came on my play list and started singing about my favorite place in all of the world and I was able power through the rest of the run. At the very end I was even singing and dancing to Show me How from the Burlesque soundtrack. It is literally impossible not to shake your ass when you listen to that song. Sure I'm slow as molasses but I did it. I did it. I did it. Yay Me!

Now for the real challenge. I just registered for the Provo Freedom 10K that is in less than five weeks. I've made up my own little training schedule and I'm going to do the best I can to complete this goal as well. I wouldn't say that I love to run. I'm not quite there yet but I have felt something in the last few weeks of training at the end of a run that I've only felt in one other situation that has nothing to do with organized exercise. Those bloody endorphins people talk about are real.