About a month ago my exercising ran off the rails. My calves and shins hurt, I hit a weight plateau…and then I went to Salt Lake City, and then I had a cold and then, and then, and then.

And then, suddenly, I have only a month to go before I’m supposed to run in the Race for the Cure in Des Moines. 5K. 3.1 miles. The whole time I wasn’t working out, I was never accepting that I had given up, and finally this past week, I climbed back on the elliptical and got back to work.

Surprisingly, I don’t feel like I’ve lost as much ground as I might have expected. One key data point: pushups. I can’t remember if I’ve written about this or not, but awhile back I was bragging to Mark about how my pushups were actually getting to be quite good-ish. Back in April, when I started, I could barely manage 3, at the time of the conversation I was up to about 15. I was excited to tell him about my pushups, but what he apparently hadn’t understood was that I was doing bent-knee pushups. The look of disdain on his face when he discovered this was…infuriating.

Oh sure, he backed up and redeemed himself, but I wasn’t really angry with him. I channeled the anger into going downstairs and doing “real” pushups.

I think I did 3.

Badly.

But I kept going, and adding more until I was doing 10. (Still badly, but hey, at least I kept going!)

Fast forward to Friday morning, and after my run, I wasn’t sure my lower legs were going to support me, so I did 10 bent-knee pushups.

Omigosh, they were an absolute BREEZE.

Having actual proof that I’m getting stronger more than compensated for the fact that my calves and shins were talking about going on strike.

So, with 27 days left until, where I am at? Well, I still haven’t run more than a mile at one time, and frankly, I have no idea if I’ll manage to run the entire 5K. I will be OK with walking part of it, but I’d like to run as much as humanly possible.

I’m finding that it’s much easier to run when it’s mid 50s vs. mid 70s (or more) — a month ago it was my heart, lungs, calves, and shins that were complaining — now it’s just mostly those pesky lower limbs. Today I managed a total distance of just over 2 miles, .78 of which I ran. All at once, without stopping. I feel totally justified in munching down the handful of M&Ms I’m currently snacking on. I have to keep up my energy, right? Right?

To sponsor me in the Race for the Cure, you can visit my personal page.

Wait.  What?

So, yeah, about two weeks ago I woke up and in a muzzy sleepy haze started thinking about my fitness goals.  My original goal was to be able to hike in Grand Canyon National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park and Arches National Park and not get left in a canyon because I was too out of shape to move.

Clearly I survived the trip, and was able to log almost 16 miles of hiking in my fitness journal when I got back. CHECK

Now:  where I am going??

Well, I do have a weight loss goal, but that’s not really THE goal.  THE goal is to not die early from either heart disease or diabetes, both of which are in my family history.

Losing 30 pounds and getting rid of the poochy belly I’m sporting are specific goals, but they aren’t specific enough.  I decided I needed a shorter term, specific “thing” to work toward.

And that’s when I decided I wanted to be able to run in a 5K.

I sent Mark an e-mail telling him that I had this crazy idea.  I sort of expected him to agree with me that it was a little bit crazy, but I knew he’d still be supportive.

His response?

That would be awesome!  You do know that K stands for Kilometer, don’t you?

Wise guy.

And that is how I found myself signed up to run in the October 23rd Des Moines Race for the Cure.  I decided not to think about it too hard, and just sign up already.  And I do plan to run it.  Don’t worry, I’m building up to it slowly:  it is 67 days away, and I’m pretty confident that that is enough time for me to SLOWLY work up to running the entire 5K.

Although, I prefer to think of it as 3.1 miles, because 3.1 is “less” than 5, but that’s just how my brain works.

I’m following the ubiquitous “Couch to 5K” running plan (that originated here), I have a fancy app on my iPhone that tells me when to run and when to walk.  I’ve just completed week 2 — and have logged 9.55 miles of running/walking.  One of the first things I did after deciding to do this crazy thing was to visit a running store — I am really like the brand-new Mizuno running shoes they recommended.  My feet don’t hurt at all — the main thing is that these puppies are MY ACTUAL SIZE.  I usually have to make do with 11s, but technically, I’m a 10.5 — NO ONE carries 10.5.

I still have a long way to go before I’m ready to run 3.1 miles in a row, and even though I read about how much people love running, I’m still in a love-hate relationship, but I’m giving it my best.

Because it is a Race for the Cure, I do have some fundraising to do, but here’s the deal:  before I go around with my hand out any further than it’s already been, I’ve decided that I need to prove myself a little bit more in terms of training, and maybe actually run an entire 5K before I get too obnoxious about asking for donations.

Don’t worry, I’ll be plenty obnoxious in the meantime about how much achy and sore I am.

I can tell you are thrilled to pieces to be a reader of my blog right now.