Fierce

My legs are like JELLY.  I can hardly move.  My trainer kicked my butt despite my polite request for my butt to be kickproof.  Lunges, reverse lunges, all sorts of step-ups and other leg-shaking-inducing exercises later, my lower half is in dire straits.  Do you want to know what I did at 7:00 this morning?  WEEK 3, DAY 2, that's what!  Heck yes!  I did it.  I could've "waited until the soreness eased up," but I didn't.  I DID IT.

Here is me this morning, psyching myself out to go out into the 20 degrees (ok, so it was only 20 degrees until I got to the gym) and push through my training:

Fierce.  Yes.  In September I was a bumbling mess, in October I had mono, in November I joined the Y, in December I decided to run a 5k, and in January, I said, NO EXCUSES.  The girl in this photo is not a natural. The girl in this photo is a hard worker. So here's to taking it one day at a time and recognizing my own reflection for the first time in a long time.

Waiting in line for a treadmill is not nearly as fun as it sounds...

Would you like to know what the Dowd YMCA is like on a Monday in January at 5:30 p.m.?  Here, have a look:

I've posted before about why I work out in the morning instead of the evenings, but I had a pretty major snafu this morning involving Roy and the alarm, causing me to rush out the door rather than head to the gym.

Needless to say, it was after work that I hit the Dowd.  I've had to wait for a treadmill before, but never more than a minute or two.  Today, however, was different.  I didn't realize just how awkward this can be until I was committed to the wait.  See, that's the thing.  The cardio machines are spread ALL OVER the Y, so it's not like there's one organized queue for the machines.  No, there are as many as 5 distinct areas for treadmills alone (that I can think of right off).  As I found today, you really have to commit to a waiting spot, or the process can take, well, forever.

Let's say you head into the first cardio theater and are dismayed by the crowd (and smell, to be honest - this one room has a particularly intense odor), so you head to area #2.  When you get to area #2, which is inevitably full, you have to make a choice.  Do I stay here and wait with this one other person who is waiting, or do I go back to the stinky line? Or do I move on upstairs and give up this possibly short line?  I mean, I have no idea how long the wait will be upstairs...could it be shorter?  Yeah, it's probably shorter.  I'll just pop up there and see...Dang.  Everything's full up here, too.  I can't tell if there's a line, though, and honestly, these machines don't even have TVs and are therefore clearly inferior, so I'll just go back downstairs and wait in line #2.  I bound down the stairs, thinking maybe there's not even a line anymore, and BAM, original line of just one girl is now three.  DANG IT!  DANG IT ALL!  I start to head back upstairs, or down to the women's area, or over to the other side of this room, when I realize that it's all futile.  I'm just going to have to wait.

I decided to make the best of my waiting and recruit the next lady in line to teach an apprenticeship, which she actually agreed to do.  I mean, I have no idea if she'll actually call or sign up online (I didn't have my phone or a pen or anything), but if it works out, I guess all of this awkwardness was worth it.  Thing 1 and Thing 2 got on their treadmills pretty quickly, but then there was me, just waiting.  Being first in line is the worst.  Everyone who comes up asks you if you are waiting, and you have to sort of apologetically admit that you are, which means that their wait is just that much longer.  The only thing you can do is commiserate and comment on the one girl who's been on the treadmill for 45 minutes, when everyone knows the limit is 30 during peak times.

The worst part is that the treadmills, in this case, are facing toward the wall, and you have to wait behind the people. This means that you cannot help looking at each person's bum.  I mean, there they are, all in a row.  Bum bum bum bum bum, all lined up and running and doing bummy things.  You don't want to look, because, well, then you'd be looking at a bunch of bums, but they are just THERE!  A good ten minutes of pretending I wasn't watching old man bum and weird lady bum and super running girl bum later, I finally got a treadmill.

It was exactly at this moment that I realized that my bum was now part of the show.

It was also at this moment that I realized that I'd worn the illest-fitting pants and top combo possible.  I spent the next 30 minutes doing my intervals (more on these in a sec) and constantly adjusting my clothes.  I'm sure if I hadn't just spent the last 15 minutes starting at other people's body parts I would've just ignored the top creeping up and the bottoms creeping down, but I became obsessed.  So this, then was how I spent Week 3, Day 1.

The run itself was decent.  The new 3 minute running intervals were certainly a challenge, especially the last one, but I can't help but wonder if it was because I did nothing but make sure my undies or love handles weren't putting on a show for the new queue.  I ran without my back brace again, which was a little unstable, but overall I'm doing quite well.  More random discomfort in the foot department, but I really think this will be more manageable when I'm on real terrain.  It looks like it's warming up all week, so hopefully by the weekend I'll be doing the real thing!

I learn a new lesson every day that I train, and today's was to double check the alarm.  If you run in the morning, it's done, and your day will doubtless be better for it.  If you try to cram it in in the evening, and you're unfortunate enough to work out at the coolest gym in town, it's waiting and then bum!

What should I wear when I'm running outside?

Running World has answered the question:

What Should I Wear?

You just enter your weather conditions, and they give you nice suggestions on what to wear.  For those of us who occasionally like to be told what to do, this is a nice little tool.

Week Two COMPLETE!

Hello, world!  My name is Sarah, and I just finished week two of my training for a 5k.

I am SO EXCITED!  I know that if I made it this far, each week's goal is just another small step toward running my 3.1 miles.  Even when I was at my fittest, running 3 miles was still a huge accomplishment, so now that it's getting closer and closer to being within grasp, I am very eager to keep going.

My friend Craig is doing the Gateway to 10k, a step up from my Couch to 5k, and he is really rocking it.  He has faced a lot of the same challenges I have, so I wanted to give him a public shout out for recently running over 4 miles on a 24 degree morning!  As always, he's encouraging me to take it slow, but it's hard when you see such great results from someone who started in a similar vein as I did.

I am in the biggest financial bind I've experienced in a looooooong time, so it's killing me not to be able to go buy the stuff I want to buy to run outside.  I just need a headband for my ears and some gloves (though I'm considering using some mismatched socks as mittens), and preferably something long-sleeved and synthetic (all of my good stuff is sleeveless or short-sleeved) to layer with, but my last few bucks are going toward half a tank of gas.  You'd think, for all the years I've been stocking up on workout clothes, I'd have bought a few of these things, but I've always been a gym-goer, and until now, it hasn't required any special kit.  I don't think it's something I"d want to pick up at a thrift store, though creating an exercise-themed thrift store is not a bad idea.

The best news of all, though, is that I've lost 8 pounds.  I don't really weight myself, ever, but I had a follow-up doctor's appointment on Friday, and they weighed me.  I'd been on the day before Thanksgiving, too, and I've lost 8 pounds since then.  This is very, very positive.  Due to years of stress and insomnia, my body is very resistant to weight loss, and I think the shock of a different kind of training has really kick-started it.  Additionally, it's hard to justify a lot of indulgences when you know you're never more than 2 days away from a new challenge!

Two weeks down, seven to go.