Wednesday, November 2, 2011

grateful


I am feeling thankful today. Grateful for my nice, newly single neighbor who let us park one of our cars in her newly half-empty garage for the snowstorm. Thankful that today was a snow day that let us sleep in but turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon and evening. And happy that my ordeal from yesterday (thyroid biopsy) is over and I am feeling okay.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

iron

Well. It turns out that there was something else holding me back too, and I don't know why I didn't suspect: I found out I was severely anemic. Now I know why I sometimes felt too weak to finish a run, or why whenever I would crouch down and stand back up, I would almost black out. How did I ignore that for so long?

I stopped my running program before I got to the end (couldn't really ever get to the point where I could run longer than 10 minutes at a stretch), and haven't run since probably June. It's now the first of November (haha, the one day I can count on myself to try to post an entry - NaBloPoMo, you know)  and I think I would have to start all over. I think I might, though.

I have now been taking iron supplements for a few months, plus I had some uterine fibroids removed, which were causing excessive monthly bleeding (the probable cause of the anemia). I'm feeling stronger and tire less easily, so I think I'm ready to give it another try. I think this iron thing was holding me back way more than that measly "4" on the treadmill incline!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

uphill battle

I really struggled with week 7 of Couch to 5K. Couldn't figure out why I was huffing and puffing so much doing my slow jog through the 25 minutes. About halfway through the second run of the week, I noticed that the incline on the treadmill had been set to 4. I usually run at about a 1.5 incline; apparently someone in my family who had used the treadmill had cranked it up and I had run uphill several miles without noticing, even though that "4" was just staring me in the face as I leaned over the handrails, gasping and sweating.

It made me think: what else am I making more difficult for myself because I just plow on ahead without paying attention?

Thursday, April 7, 2011

making it better

I was running my Week 4, Day 2 run of Couch to 5K yesterday and, while I was noticing my aerobic endurance getting better, I was also thinking, "ow, ow, ow, ow" with each step. I started worrying that I'm going to mess up my knees, make my bunion start hurting again, wah wah waaahhh...

And then I realized: I am running in old cross-training shoes (not running shoes) with many miles of neighborhood walking on them. Duh! I need new shoes!

At first I thought I would do what I did with my current shoes - look on the clearance rack at DSW and find something that fits. And then I realized: I should take as good care of my own feet and body as I do of my daughter's! So I went to Boulder Running Company and had them do the video analysis of my gait and tried on several different shoes that the specialist picked out for my special feet, and bought some really comfy high-quality PINK running shoes. (And it only cost a little more than buying them off the clearance rack!)

This is going to be much better.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Off the couch

In an effort to get more aerobic exercise, I have started trying to run. This is not something that has EVER been in my workout repertoire...even in the 80s and 90s when I was doing high-impact Jazzercise regularly and could keep going through the whole session without getting too winded, I wasn't able to run more than a minute without having to stop.

But I keep reading about this Couch to 5K program that gradually trains non-runners to become runners by starting with tiny amounts of running interspersed with walking and gradually increasing the running time over 9 weeks. I'm on week 3 now. I downloaded a podcast on iTunes that has not-too-cheesy background music and a lovely British lady who tells you when to walk and when to run. Monday's session contained my first instance of running for 3 (!) minutes at a time. I could barely do it! But I did. Then today the 3-minute run came up again...and it was perceptibly easier! This could actually work.

I hope it works! I'm going to sign up for a 5K so I have something to shoot for.