But what would my super-hero name be?

I love the funnies, and my hands down favourite has got to be Pearls Before Swine. Why you ask? Well....

I suddenly feel so powerful.

Nope....Not a Lady

I sweat....a lot. Not the cute lady like sweat that some of the fit girls at the gym get, but nasty, shirt drenching man sweat that is not at all attractive. I'm okay with this, I've had to deal with it since high school gym class, so I am fine with being ugly when I work out. The people beside me, well, I think that's another story. A few days in a row now I have had someone (a man) working out beside me. As it gets further into my workout he also ends up glancing over, looking at me like "lady, what disease makes you do that?" I usually glance back at him with a smile that says "dude, look away now, it's not going to get any prettier."

Gym Angel

This morning's run was hard. My body is tired and I just wasn't there mentally to pump myself up. I was actually about to stop early when my gym angel appeared. Okay, so I don't think he was a real angel, but for some reason he felt the need to talk to me. Maybe he saw my frustration, but for whatever reason he felt the need to tell me he had recently lost 65 pounds, and asked me not to get discouraged. It turns out that was exactly what I needed to hear, because not only did I finnish my run, but I ended my workout by running for 2 minutes instead of 90 seconds. So, thank you old guy at the gym, your 30 seconds of kindness made my day and saved my workout!

Whoo hoo!

I went out today and got myself a sweet new pair of shoes.

They are Asics Fortitude, and even though they do not come in pink, they did come at the right price. These are last years models, so I got them half off, for a total of $70 plus tax. I purchased them at City Park Runners, recommended by Jen P and they were amazing. They looked at my feet, my walk, and how I walked in every single pair I tried on. Not only that, but the staff asked me about my training program, gave me exercise and stretching tips, and introduced me to a couple members of their regular running club. Everyone was so encouraging and supportive. One employee congratulated me on my efforts to get in shape. I realized this morning that my decision to start running has given me the opportunity to become part of a very supportive community, and that is very exciting.

We are not impressed! Signed, Your Shins

After my first two runs, I noticed a dull ache in my shins. This led me to do two things. One, skip my planned third run of the week, and two, head to the nearest google site to plan my next move. As it turns out, while my warm up was fine, I was not stretching as much as I should be. Oops. According to the almighty internet, this is a common thing among new runners, and it's such a relief to know that I am just as stupid as everybody else. Most websites also mentioned proper footwear, which I thought I had, until I started to think back. I remember working out with my then new shoes in the Gritty Grotto at the UofM. For those of you who have no idea what that means, it puts the age of my runners at 7 years. At least. They may be older. I have been trying to run in decrepit shoes. The silver lining in all of this is that I was smart enough to stop before I actually hurt myself, and I get new shoes. Maybe I can find pink ones, which would make me giddy.

Does all of this mean I was inactive this week? Hell no! I still have a bike tour to worry about. I am just doing an extra session on the bike and letting my shins get better so I can pound the hell out of them next week. My bike training has actually been going really well. I have incorporated hill workouts, and my average speed for them is between 33 and 35km/hr. My regular speed, on a flat surface is around 23km/hr. I know that my average speed will decrease when I start training outdoors, but I can't wait to get my new bike, get outside and just go! I continue to increase the length of my endurance session, and tomorrow I plan to ride for 65 minutes. The other members at my gym must feel so honoured, what with getting to watch my sweaty shirt turn a different colour, then seeing me walk like I've been riding a horse for 3 days. Life doesn't get any better than that really.

Sometimes

Sometimes we can be wrong about ourselves, and, sometimes, we realize we didn't know ourselves as well as we thought we did. By we I mean me, I didn't know myself as well as I thought I did. In fact, I think somewhere along the way I lost myself somehow. In my last post I talked about my impatience, and how I need to work on that. In some ways impatience is one of my poorest qualities, but, as it turns out, impatience can also help me out from time to time.

For most of my adult life I have been putting things off, mostly active things, until I loose weight. This has lasted for years, and the only thing that has changed is my weight, in the wrong direction. For some reason, training for the bike tour flipped a switch. For a month I have been challenging myself, and succeeding. I am proud of myself for that. However, for the past year I have been thinking about running. Inspired by her, and her, and my friend Meghan I have not been able to get this idea out of my head. I told myself I had to wait, I had to lose more weight, I had to be more fit, I had to be more. This weekend one word popped into my head. Why? Why did I have to wait, hadn't I been waiting long enough? Life has been passing me by while I wait, well, no longer.

This morning, I ran. Wait, let me rephrase that. I jogged. I went online and found a from couch to 5K training plan and I jogged for 1 minute and walked for 2, for a total of 20 minutes. It was hard, but not impossible. On wednesday I will do it again, and in two months I will run my own 5k. In two months, I will run longer and faster than I ever have before. As it turns out, someday, was today.