It's Gotta Get Better Than This!

January 9, 2013

I'm having trouble getting my thoughts together today so I'm going to apologize up front for the disjointed feeling of this blog today.  I just got done with the dreaded treadmill.  I will admit that I did procrastinate (I had a lively texting conversation with one of my besties) with the express intention of trying to talk myself out of getting on The Mill.  Then my bestie said to me "You got this" so I had to prove her right and decided to get on there and get to it.  Besides it was getting late and I did need to get it done if I was going to do it....and I really needed to.  To be honest after I tied on my Mill shoes I realized that it was kind of nice outside and almost talked myself into trading my Mill shoes for my Street shoes but then I remembered why I didn't run yesterday (I think I finally came down with what the kids had been passing around since Thanksgiving and spent the day in bed and the bathroom) and decided it would be a better idea to be close to the bathroom in case I had a relapse of the runs (and not in the running kind of way if you know what I mean!)  So I kept with the plan and pulled out The Mill.

Yesterday I was pretty sore and I must admit I was glad that I was too sick to run because I couldn't move without being in a bit of pain.  I moved gingerly and stayed in bed (except for going to Girl Scouts; I'm co-leader and the leader had to leave the meeting for a few minutes so I needed to supervise) all day for the most part.  I feel much better today, both my tummy and my legs.  So I really had no excuse to not get to it.

Today I didn't seem so out of breath as I was yesterday.  Yesterday I wanted to quit after two minutes.  Today I felt much stronger.  I wonder if that's psychological or if my brain said to my legs "Hey!  I remember this....we used to do this regularly, remember?  Let's go get some!"  I don't care what it is I'm glad.  I ran a full mile today without having to stop for a drink or to rest.  At that point I stretched my legs and I'm glad I did.  I did have to stop at 1.5 miles for a rest again though.  I was tired and out of breath.  I stopped to wipe my nose, drink some water and put on some chap stick - my lips always get so dry when I'm on The Mill - and then I was off again.  I had to slow down but I only slowed down for a couple of minutes, maybe .2 of a mile because Joan Jett came on the iPod and one cannot possibly walk to Joan Jett, she's just too tough.  So off I went again and ran the rest of the three miles.  I walked for a couple minutes more to slow myself down and then I was done.  YAY!!!!

What's interesting about this run today is not the run itself, that in and of itself was boring.  The view from The Mill is boring, the running is boring and it's hard.

The view from The Mill:

As you can see, the TV is rather low and I'm too short to see over the top of The Mill enough to really get a good view of the TV while running.  Plus The Mill is rather loud and I'm not big on turning the TV up to decibels that will have the neighbors calling the police.....but I've digressed.....again.  Back to what was interesting about my run today.  What I found interesting and completely coincidental was that today when I was completely exhausted and needed to slow down my iPod, which I put on shuffle to avoid listening in the same order (alphabetical) over and over again, played a slower song ("What Is Eternal" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, sung by Rob Evan whose voice is incredible and very pleasant to listen to) and I walked through this song but then when Joan Jett came on ("Do Ya Wanna Touch?") I was ready to speed it up again.  How cool is that?  Thanks, iPod, because of the random order of the songs I was able to find the inspiration to keep going and make it through the tough part of my workout then dig deeper and find the UMPH to get back to speed.

I'm doing better.  I don't feel so run down today and I'm not coughing like I did on Monday.  Maybe I was just getting sick; I don't know.  I know I'm out of shape but today's run made me feel that maybe getting back in shape might not be as hard as I thought.  I did look on my shoe chart today and discovered that until Monday I hadn't run since October 6, 2012.  That was almost exactly three months!  UGH!!!!  But, that's only three months of not working out so maybe I will be back up to my old self again quickly.  I certainly hope so.

Here are the details:  My distance today was 3.2 miles.  It took 40 minutes to do that @ 5.0 MPH for about 2.8 miles of that I would say but that's just an estimate.  I walked the little bit between 2.5 and 3 miles and then walked the last .2 miles to cool down.  My average pace was 12:30.  Not my best, but I'm a work in progress and it's going to take time to get back up to where I want to be.  No messing with incline today.  I'm still out of shape.  That will come later.

On a funnier note, we got a new kitten for Christmas.  She wandered up to my dad's house about a month before Christmas and was so tiny they had to feed her with a dropper.  We adopted her and brought her home on Christmas Eve.  She is a feisty little thing and likes to play a lot.  Well, Monday she was introduced to The Mill.  She jumped on it when I pulled it out so I started it up @ 1.0 MPH (so she wouldn't get hurt but would learn that she really didn't want to be on it) and she jumped off but when I was running she decided that my moving feet were just the thing she wanted to play with, must've been the floppy shoelaces.  I've had to stop several times to get her away and have decided that she's going to have to be shut away in another room until she's old enough to know that The Mill is no place for a kitten!  I would be heartbroken, and so would the kids, if anything happened to her!

(Micah, the curious kitty, in my daddy's lap before we brought her home.)


Happy Running, with or without kittens!

KEA