...SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today I began Week 4 of the Couch to 5K program and I'm going to have to repeat this one. In fact, I may have to go back a step. Today's workout was: 5 min warm up walk, 3 min jog, 30 sec walk, 5 min jog, 2.5 min walk, 3 min jog, 30 sec walk, 5 min cool down.
I was actually doing fine until I hit the 5 minute jog. I was listening to my 80s playlist and what could be more inspiring than listening to "My Sharona" and "Love Shack." Then 4 minutes into the 5 minute jog and I had to stop jogging. I couldn't do it, although I did continue to walk and didn't quit altogether. Was it because it was 90 degrees out? Was it something I ate? Didn't eat? That I forgot to bring water and it's 90 degrees out? Lack of sleep? The fact that I never really completed Week 3's workouts cleanly? Was it the heat? Did I mention that it's flipping 90 degrees out?!?! Or is just that I'm the 2 "Fs": Fat and Forty-(something)! Jogging with an extra 30 pounds is not fun and add to that a torn meniscus and 45 year old joints.
Here's a recommendation for the 20/30-somethings: Start now! I was an thin, active child but became an overweight, lazy teen/adult. Once I hit my early teens, I hated exercise. In my 20s and 30s, I was more interested in drinking with friends and hanging out rather than exercising. I don't think a weekly trip to a nightclub during the mid-80s really constitutes as exercise ... But I did learn how to "strike a pose" with the best of them. Now that it's a couple of decades later and I'm older and supposedly wiser, I will state unequivocally that I still hate exercising and really am only doing it because I have to do it, not because I want to do it. Doctors, friends and family have been urging me for years to bite the bullet, lose weight and start exercising. At the end of March 2010, after what I have termed "PigFest 2010" (a roadtrip with my friend, Erin, to southwest Virginia where I ate my way through the weekend), I bit the bullet and decided to do something about it. With the assistance of another dear friend, Charlie*, who convinced me that if he could do it, I certainly could... except that Charlie is in his 30s and it's much easier for men to lose weight and get in shape than women (Add that to a long list of why men have an unfair advantage over women!)... But with his input and help, I did manage to lose 70 pounds, of which I've put back on 11 by not staying the course. I still have another 30 pounds to go and it's getting harder and harder to stay focused on the goal. It's tiring and boring!
Kids, listen to what this elder has to say: Don't wait until you're older to get into a regular exercise regimen. I wish that I had pushed myself when I was young to get into a workout regime because even if I never learned to love exercise, I at least would be used to it by now. I really have to push myself every day to stick to my workout schedule. Would I rather be sitting on the couch, reading a book and eating Kettle Chips? You bet! That's what my formative years were all about. But I'm paying the piper now and it's painful and expensive.
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*Name has been changed to protect the innocent.
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