Out Shape and Out of Breath

Half-Marathon Training, Week 1 Recap

I just completed my first week of training and I'm literally freaking out! How can I possibly go from barely running a mile to running 13.1 miles in two and a half months? Last Monday I was eager to start my fitness program, taking my favorite Urban Rebounding class prior to my scheduled run. Since I breezed through the class as well as my 2 mile walk, I decided to start my 1 mile run at  6.5mph. After the first few minutes, I was awfully out of breath and wheezing like an eighty year old woman. Barely making it through that horrendous run, I slowed down enough to avoid embarrassing myself in the middle of the gym.

This is extremely hard when you're extremely sore

The following day I skipped my Tabata Training class and opted for Ashtanga Yoga. I figured it'd be good to relax, give my leg muscles a break, and practice my stretching and breathing. What I didn't realize was that I had picked the wrong yoga class for a beginner like myself. All the awkward bending and stretching made me well aware of how out of shape I am, and how much ground I have to cover in my fitness re-invention.

Day three presented me with a work/social event scheduling conflict. These were very common last year when I tended to put health and fitness at the bottom of my priority list. Being my proactive self, I went for my 1 mile run (which only took about 10 minutes), showered, changed and headed out to the event. I was actually very proud of myself for squeezing in workout time while steering clear of excuses.

I missed my Saturday run, making up for it on Sunday when I visited my nearby gym. I ran my scheduled miles and added some of the interval training missed on Saturday.

At this point, Homer looks like the better athlete 

I'm jump-starting week 2 with the thought that I basically don't have any room to fail. I refuse  to walk the half-marathon, so I will be completing my scheduled runs no matter what. This week, I will continue to mix my runs with gym workouts such as Urban Rebounding, Tabata Training, Vinyasa Yoga, Total Body Conditioning, Zumba, Spinning, etc. I'll also continue to stay on track with my Weight Watchers points tracking to guarantee some weight loss throughout this journey. Let's just wait and see what next week has in store for me. I'm can't wait for this fitness craze to start getting exciting.