Conquering C25K!

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew, thanks for letting me scream for a second.  I just needed to get that out there, I DID WEEK 1, DAY 1 C25K WORKOUT START TO FINISH!!!!  Ahh, that feels so good! So did the sweat that came pouring out of me!  When I got started it was chilly.  Brisk.  Coldish.  And I’m a weenie when it comes to being cold, I don’t like it.  But I started out in my short sleeved shirt knowing that in no time I would be warmed up, hot and sweating. 

Let me back up a bit.  A week or so ago I downloaded the C25K app on my Android (it’s free, do it too!).  I sat in my living room and listened to it to get a feel for what I was in for.  Ok, I decided, I could do this.  But one problem, no music.  And I need music.  So I got on Mama Laughlin’s Fit Camp on Facebook (check it out!!) and posted a comment asking how I can listen to music and run C25K at the same time.  Those gals came out in force and helped me out!  So next I downloaded Pandora, figured out how to run that (sort of) and started listening to their station called “Workout”.  Ok, nothing holding me back now!

Fast forward back to me going out for my first run/walk.  I step outside in the brisk (and windy) weather and start off.  They start you off slow with a 5 minute ‘warm up’.  It’s supposed to be a brisk walk, so I briskly walked in the brisk weather.  (A lot of brisking going on here, sheesh!)  By the end of my 5 minutes my shins were burning.  Oh boy, I thought, this isn’t going to be good if I’m already sore from the warm up.  Ba-doonk, the bell dings and tells me to start jogging.  Okay, here goes nothing!  So I start jogging (thank goodness for a heavy duty sports bra doubled up with a regular bar, or I’d be black and blue in the face when done).  60 seconds later, ba-doonk.  Time to start walking for 90 seconds.  Back and forth, back and forth I go.  During the second set of jogging I started to get a little winded, but then that next set of walking came just in time for me to slow down a bit and catch my breath. 

About 16/17 minutes in my side started to cramp.  Oh boy, what am I going to do?? I don’t want to give up, I’ve made it half-way through this workout.  Ok, Erin, suck it up and keep going!  So I did!  I did!!!  I don’t know where the strength came from.  Maybe it was from me remembering a post I saw on a friend’s Facebook page.  It was one of those ‘e-cards’.  It said something along the line of “If you see me running you’d better run too. Something is obviously chasing me.”  And when I remembered that I thought, “yea, my ass is chasing me!”  Literally, my fat ass is chasing me and if I don’t keep going it’s just going to keep getting bigger and it will keep chasing me.  So I sucked it up and kept going.

I ran every set, and even ran a little into the walking set during the last 10 minutes.  It felt good!  The sweat felt good!  Yea, my calves were super tight by the end, but when I got home I stretched, then kept moving so they wouldn’t get too tight.  Oh, and when I was running towards the end I could feel the muscles in my butt tightening up. Yes!!!  What a great feeling!  Ha ha, weird I am! 

When I got home I took my first post-workout picture.  Here it is.

I was so proud of myself for doing this and finishing it.  And I couldn’t wait till Week 1 Day 2!  I have hated running my whole life.  I was a cheerleader, not a basketball player or a track star.  So why am I starting now?  I don’t know.  There are a million other ways to exercise, right? But for some reason I just want to run!  I want to be able to throw on my shoes and head out the door (alone) for 30 minutes of just me time.  I want to feel good.  And, I want to LOOK good!  I read so many people’s stories saying they weren’t runners but they did it and they lost weight, felt better, and looked better.  I want that for me!  So, I am going to run.

Have a super fantastic day!

Erin