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.
I think we need to go back to talking about exercise together a lot. Because I fell off the wagon too. I blame the new school schedule and not being able to fit trips to the gym in. I realized today with Matt watching the kids I had no excuse not to go. So now I need to schedule exercise into my school schedule!
I call them “big boy” push-ups. Not the girly kind. Congrats on so many. I had worked up to 5 one time. I need to get back to exercising, quit the cupcake fascination and start eating right. Pat yourself on the back for getting back on track and on the road. A big woohoo for you.
P.S. I was in Arches N.P. last week and wondered if you were ever going to finish your vacation. You got to my state (Utah) and I was curious how it looked through your eyes.