Tag Archives: Health

getting in shape, Me

One small step?

OK, I did it.  I ran.  I didn’t die…I’m happy about that.  It started this morning.  My dog decided not to hear me calling his name so I ran across the backyard barefoot to intercept him before he was so far gone I would have to jump into the van and drive to the neighbors to retrieve him….again.  My legs felt good and I wasn’t too winded.

After a full day of driving and meetings and some paperwork as I let the sun be overtaken by some clouds and it was cool enough to breath before I gave it a go.  I have been walking.  My running route is 4 miles in total but I haven’t even walked that distance yet.  I did make it 3 miles walking one day.  I suppose I am being a bit overconfident but I figure I have to try sometime, huh?

Still working on the quitting smoking part.  I decided to stop smoking about 20 minutes before I leave and wait at least 30 minutes afterwards.

I found my ear buds for my ipod.  I guess really I ran out of excuses not to try to run again.

My dog has been walking with me, he likes to be on the walks and he is grounded for life for running off to the neighbors and staying gone for 6 hours whereby causing me some serious worry.  He is a little guy and there are many, many monsters in the woods these days.  He is just the right size for coyote food and eagle food and probably hawk food.  So now he walks with me for his exercise rather than run the neighborhood.  Like I said, he likes the walks but he misses getting to be loose and on his own.

When I started actually running he gave me that sideways look he gives me when he just knows for sure I don’t know what the hell I am doing….I get that look a lot.

We walked the first 3/4 of a mile, listening to music and watching for monsters.  Then I stopped and turned around and started actually running.  Now I didn’t run the entire way home…no, just running off and on for the return trip.  But I ran…I didn’t jog, I didn’t walk fast…I ran.  The weather is just summer hot….temp around 95 (89 in the shade) and the humidity hovers around 99%.  Sweat is pouring from every pore on my body and I feel good.  When I did run (35 years ago), I ran in the heat of the Texas summer…East Texas, so the weather was about the same and I have to admit, I smiled as I chugged along today with that memory fresh in my head.

My guess is that tomorrow I will not be able to repeat todays’ performance.  If memory serves me right… I will spend the day whining about how much my shins hurt.

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getting in shape, Life, Me, Uncategorized

The Battle Continues

OK…so now it has been two weeks since I started planning to run again.  I can honestly say that my planning is going quite well.  I have not, however, bothered to hit the road yet.  I did find my running shoes.  I was examining them to ensure that they were fit to carry me again and discovered that a flying squirrel had decided at some point that they made perfect storage units for stolen dog food.

I have also continued to work on quitting smoking.  I have not quit yet but I am beginning to not like smoking.  I think that is a great step that needed to be taken.  At least this time around planning to quit does not involve hiding cigarettes for later (for emergencies).  Another positive step.

I have been looking into a couple of apps for my phone to help me motivate and decided that it was much more trouble than I was willing to tackle, not that downloading apps is an issue but relying on them for each run just seems to be a lot of trouble.  I started reading a book about running and bought myself an ipod-holder-thingy so that I can take my tunes with me.  My next goal is to find my ear buds so I can listen to those tunes.  Could I buy a new set?  Yes, but I know I have some around her somewhere and I might possibly lose my procrastination license if I do not spend at least a week looking around the house for them.

Our oldest child came down with his family to spend some time during Father’s Day weekend.  He has managed to run the mini in Indianapolis for the last two years.  I took some time to talk with him about motivation and running routines.  He is younger than I but only by 13 years (yeah, I married an old guy the second time around) so I still have this image of myself being able to run.  He agrees and I feel much encouraged by his confidence in me.

I am dealing with some guilt and I am dealing with some fear.  Knowing that I can run and that I should run keep the gears turning in my head.  Managing my schedule to open some time is the obstacle I face today.

“You have time to sit and write….what’s the hold up?”  Good question, I wish I could say that I had a good answer.  I will use work as an excuse for now and keep on working on getting my feet on the pavement again.

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