Coles Crossing is a neat place to exercise because it has many different trail options. You can make it as short as a little over a mile or as long as 4 3/4 miles, with many options in between. The path we were taking last September was about 2 1/2 miles. Paul and Heather would generally start off jogging but go the opposite direction and eventually catch up with me. Sometimes, they would take the kids back to the playground so I could go off by myself and walk in peace. One of those days, I decided to try and jog. I only made it about 1/4 of a mile -- but still -- I did it! I was amazed because in the past when I tried to jog my lungs felt like they would burst. Paul and Heather did pick on my a bit, as jogging is not something they had seen me do before. In fact, there were many, many days I had said "I hate running, I don't know how you can do that."
I jogged off and on through the end of November and not surprisingly, let exercise go in favor of buying & wrapping gifts, decorating, making Christmas goodies, visiting relatives, etc in December. In January, I started up again and it was hard! My first jog was barely a mile in January.
Saturday, April 16th was the first time I did 5K (3.1069 miles, I jog 3.15 miles and call that 5K). My next few jogs were horrible, I was really discouraged and afraid I would never get it again. I struggled just to get to 2 miles and it was rough! I decided to just keep at it and figured that some exercise was better than no exercise. Then, Thursday, April 28th I did it again!!!! It hasn't even been a full week since then and I went out to jog today and was hoping to get to 5K but wasn't sure it would happen given that last time I did 5K, my abilities were limited for a while. A few things were different this morning, one is that the weather was amazing!! It was 55 degrees this morning! Second, I bought some ear buds for my ipod and downloaded a lot of music I enjoy listening to. I turned the music up pretty loud and discovered that it drowned out me listening to myself breathe, listening to myself think, etc. A good portion of the time, I wasn't even aware that I was jogging. I was totally lost in the music. When I got to 5K and realized I wasn't even tired, I decided to go for 10K! I actually did really well until the 5th mile (6.3 miles is 10K). Pretty much everything past that 5th mile was a struggle but I was so close, I really wanted to be able to say that I jogged 10K. I just made myself focus on the music and try to ignore my body. When I got back to the car, I had to sit there for a while because my legs felt like jello and my head was swimming a little. I had a bottle in the water in the car so I drank the bottle of water and recovered a bit before driving home.
On the drive home, I was thinking that I get frustrated with how my body looks. Gravity, age and too many calories have really taken a toll, but all that aside, my body is strong! I did something today that I didn't ever think would be possible for me. I haven't lost any weight, but I do feel better. I decided several months ago that I was going to stop obsessing over the number on the scale and just focus on being the healthiest me I can be. As long as the people I care about love me and accept me, what difference does the number on the scale make? I want to be healthy so that I can enjoy life to the fullest of my abilities.
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