This past weekend, I went down to Charlottesville VA to visit my BFF.  The same weekend, we did a 5k together in her neighborhood, which contains lots of hills.  The race course itself was mostly on the golf cart paths in the neighborhood, which equated to more, shorter hills than if the course were set along the main roads. 

Must be nice weather, my posts are far and few between!

This was a good week and a good start to a more determined schedule. 

After a bit of a hiatus due to scheduling and life changes, I'm back in the saddle (so to speak) and more determined than ever.
Its really good to step back and re-evaluate your life from time to time. I find that we tend to take the wrong things seriously, and it serves to be a detriment to our entire being. The short story is that I was getting too stressed about the wrong things. Something as silly as a bad workout would send me into a funk of self-evaluation. Not good. I'm determined to take things one step at a time from now on, and learn how to keep control of the things that I can control. The rest will just fall into place.
That said, my hubby is on leave this week, which has been really nice. He is a tremendous support and has gotten me motivated so early in the mornings to do my workouts. (Have I mentioned that I usually can't focus my eyes before 8am, much less think about tying on my running shoes?)
We've done two workouts this week, one was doing hills at a modest Level 1 on the treadmill for 45 minutes. My goal was to stay above a 3.5 the whole time. I was able to stay at a 3.8 pace for 10 minutes, and keep around 3.6 the rest of the time.
The second workout was from the C25k plan. I did a Week 3 workout since I've never really been able to conquer that one more than once a week.  To aid in my training, I set the treadmill to a 0.5% incline. I was pleased to note that I finished the whole workout without taking a break - keeping at a 4.4 runing pace.
This week, I'll be doing another hills workout and another Week 3 workout, finishing with a 5k on Saturday. My goal is to try running intervals of 5 min on Saturday to see if I can finally move up to Week 4 on C25k.

I've been struggling a bit lately to stay on task not only with my training, but specifically with my diet. Starting a new job where I really haven't had a chance to get things organized and settled in has hindered my "normal" work routine, so I haven't taken in any of the snack I keep on hand. Consequently, I've fallen to the eating out trap and made poor choices. 

So, its been a while since I posted last.  I managed to make it through my first 5k of the season, with decent results...

So, I "bit the bullet" and signed up for a 5k on March 27. 

Last week was not a good week. I missed most of my scheduled workouts, I didn't eat well...etc. 

This past week was tough. I started out the challenge strong and completed 20 each of the 100 required situps and pushups, as well as the first two sessions of Week 3 for the C25k. However, I hit a bit of a stumbling block by catching a virus that kept me sick the remainder of the week. 

So, this week saw the start of Lent, and though I'm not Catholic, I decided it was a great time to renew my resolve to continue running and getting healthy. 

On Valentine's Day we all seem to focus on those we love, but too often we don't focus on ourselves.  

UGH...isn't it frustrating to get rolling on something only to be stopped in your tracks!! 

Saturday, I truly felt like a runner for the first time ever. I leveled up on the C25k program and managed to increase my walking and running pace to 3.5/4.2 on the treadmill (respectively).  It felt amazing. 

I managed to do 20 minutes on the elliptical, even though I had to stop and rest a few times. It felt really good to accomplish something that I wouldn't have dreamed about doing a year ago! 

Well, I finally settled on a new training program and decided to give Cool Running's  "Couch 2 5k" program a try. 

Today is my best friend's birthday. I figure that's as good a day as any to get back on routine and break some habits that have creeped up again.  In May it will be a year since she and I started working on fitness and health goals together, using a private blog as our journal since we are in two different states. 

One of my friends, and fellow running buddies, talked me into doing a workout outside yesterday. The high was in the low 30's, so I didn't expect much. Planning on walking, I got the urge to try running after our warm up. I found a spot on the side of the road and made myself continue to that point. Then I walked for a little bit to catch my breath and did the same thing. 

Well, it took longer than I thought, but I got back to the gym today. 

Just a quick note to remind myself that I have not given up completely. Yes, the past month got out of control, what with cars being wrecked by snow plows and mothers ending up in hospitals with broken hips, but its time to look ahead and get back to it. 

After a hiatus of three and a half weeks, I finally got to the gym today and did some running. The last couple of days I've wanted to go, but something always got in the way. I told my friend I felt like I had a little pop up message in my head...I was so determined to break out and get moving again.