C25K - Week 2, Day 1

Last night was rough – on many, many levels.  My future mother in law  had called us on Sunday night and invited us to dinner on Monday.  Dana, Matt’s sister, and one of my best friends was coming down for dinner with her daughter.  She was going to make lasagna.  YAY!!!

NOT.  I CAN’T EAT PASTA!!!  It has nothing to do with carbs, or calories… I gave it up for Lent.  I have a love affair with pasta – and maybe that’s the carbs talking, but I really do.  It doesn’t matter what kind of pasta either.  I love it all.  I knew that I would not be able to resist if it was sitting right there in front of me.  So I made a plan. 

I packed my workout gear before work yesterday.  I picked Matt up, and we went over to his Moms.  Everyone is drinking wine, and sampling food – and I sat at the counter with my water.  I made small talk, chitty-chatted for a while, caught up on all the gossip.  And when it was time to eat – I made a bee-line for the door.  I went to the gym while everyone else ate. 

As you all know from my previous posts – my legs have been cramping up a lot while running.  But this was a new week, and a new workout.  C25K Week 2 – Day 1.  This week consists of intervals of 90 seconds running, 2 minutes walking.  So I decided to stretch my legs out a bit before I started.

Immediately, I knew something was off.  I wasn’t 30 seconds into the warm up, and BOTH of my legs started cramping.  I told myself to push through it, that the last time, I pushed through, and the pain went away.  It didn’t go away though.  I started running on the first interval, and the pain got pretty bad.  I was taking sharp breaths, and wincing.  I would bet money that Treadmill Barbie next to me was texting her BFF about the FatGirl crying after working out for 5 minutes, 30 seconds.  I pushed through the interval, knowing there would be relief when I was able to walk for the two minutes.  I was wrong. 

When I started walking, the pain level stayed the same.  This was both of my legs.  I felt like they were going to give out on me.  Each step burned more, and more.  I limped through the second interval, continuing to tell myself that at any time, the paid would subside.  By the time I was 10 minutes in – I had to pause the machine to try to stretch out my legs.  After about 10 seconds, the machine shut itself off.  AWESOME.  I stretched for the full 2 minute walking time, and started the treadmill back up. 

There was absolutely NO difference.  I turned the incline off - no difference.  I slowed my speed down – no difference.  I pushed through another 10 minutes, and had to stop again.  I paused the machine again, and it shut itself off again.  I followed the time on the app, and started the machine back up when it was time to run again. 

I have no idea how many calories I burned.  I have no clue how far I ran.  I know I was slower – but I did it.  No matter how slow I was, or what disgusting look Treadmill Barbie gave me, I was still faster than everyone sitting on a couch last night.  I pushed myself to the point of tears.  I finished it when I normally would have quit.  It’s when it’s hard that we get results.  It’s the pain that makes it worth it.  It’s called a workout because it requires EFFORT.  Without the work, without the pain, without the burn, it's just an EASY-OUT.  And I DID it. 

I took my time stretching last night, and decided that squats and deadlifts probably weren’t the best idea – so I skipped doing SL5x5.  I wasn’t happy about that, but I was honestly afraid of hurting myself – and I decided it just wasn’t worth it to me to risk it. 

The rest of the night was exhausting.  I ran around the house straightening up for Little Man’s birthday party tonight.  I planned secret surprises, and baked cupcakes.  What I forgot to do?  Make myself dinner.  I ended up with a salad, and cheese and crackers.  I was about 800 calories UNDER my goal last night, and that’s not good.  I was so tired, and I was sore.  Very, very sore.  

As I logged my pathetic dinner last night, I noticed ONE thing… my water.  I had nowhere near the amount of water I normally do by the time I had worked out.  That leaves me with two things that were not normal about this workout.  1.) I stretched beforehand, and 2.) I don’t think I was hydrated enough.  Tomorrow when I attack Day 2 head on, I am going to make sure that I am adequately hydrated, and I’m going to skip the pre-workout stretching.  Maybe I will see a difference in my performance. 

“YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE ISN’T SOMEONE ELSE.  IT’S THE ACHE IN YOUR LUNGS AND THE BURNING IN YOUR LEGS, AND THE VOICE INSIDE YOU THAT YELLS “CAN’T”, BUT YOU DON’T LISTEN.  YOU JUST PUSH HARDER.  AND THEN YOU HEAR THE VOICE WHISPER “CAN”.  AND YOU DISCOVER THAT THE PERSON YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE IS NO MATCH FOR THE ONE YOU REALLY ARE.”

The NEW FatGirl