C25K

I hate to exercise. It's pretty much my least favorite thing...ever. I've never enjoyed it. Probably because I've always been big and therefore it's NEVER been fun for me. However, I do know, unfortunately, that weight loss and exercise go hand in hand. Anytime I've ever been pretty successful in the past with losing weight it has included exercise. Fine, it's necessary, but I still don't have to like it! ;) According to my doctor's office I need to be doing about 30 minutes of exercise a day...walking, swimming, running, whatever I feel like. Bleh!

Keelie got it in her head that I needed to start running as part of my exercise. Yeah, she's crazy. I told her as much. She's been running for awhile now as part of her weight loss program, even winning a medal at a 5K she participated in. However, we are most definitely not the same person and I kept telling her that I COULD NOT RUN. Keelie is also an avid Biggest Loser watcher and she told me that if all those people could do it, many heavier than myself, then I could too. Whatever! LOL! One point she made stuck with me though. She said this would be something different than I had ever done before. That sounded like a challenge to me...something I had to prove to myself...that I could do this.

Since Keelie & I are planning on participating in 5Ks that are coming up in the next few months, she told me I needed to start training. Of course I thought I was just going to be walking! But last week I get a text from Keelie saying to google Couch to 5K. So I did. It looked pretty interesting. You start out very slowly (5 min warm-up, 20 mins alternating jogging 60 secs and walking 90 secs, then a 5 min cool-down) and then work up to jogging a 5K throughout the 9 week program. There was even an app for the iPhone so I decided I'd download it and try this out. No promises. I told Keelie I'd start last Wednesday. Well, Wednesday came and went and I decided I was just too busy and tired so I'd start Monday. I would also avoid Keelie until that time. LOL. Although I knew in the back of my mind that she'd soon be asking. I got the dreaded text from her on Friday. "How is training going?" Well crap! After a lengthy text conversation of telling her I was really busy and I couldn't run, she said she'd be over that night and we were doing this. "Today is the day!" I wasn't thrilled, but said okay. I was dreading it and nervous about it all day. We decided that we would go to the local high school track to do the C25K. I had called that afternoon to make sure the track was open to the public. I was told all the local ISD's tracks were open to the public. Great! We arrived at the track and hopped out of the car. No one was there, but then again it was Friday night. They were at the movies or eating out, not exercising like us fools! Ha! It also smelled weird. I thought like spray paint, Keelie though sun tan oil. We head up to the track and then see the picture below. Workers were outside resurfacing the entire track! Are you kidding me?! That explains the weird smell! I didn't want to do this in the first place, we get here and can't even use the track that I had just inquired about that day! It wasn't meant to be!


Keelie had other ideas, and I wasn't really ready to give up that quickly either. So we headed to the football stadium nearby. It was locked up tight so we decided to just use the grassy, dark practice field across the parking lot. After the first 60 sec run we moved to the parking lot. The grassy field was way too dark, full of holes, and scary. I have a history of falling and breaking my ankle and I wasn't really in the mood to do so Friday night. We didn't talk much during our workout, mostly because I couldn't breathe. I dreaded each time we had to jog. I watched my phone tick down the minutes until I could walk again. Toward the end of the 20 minutes it was time to jog again and I just couldn't. I could NOT breathe. I told Keelie it was time to jog but I wasn't going to be able to this time; I would just walk. Keelie immediately starting saying "NO, you have to do! You can't quit now. Keep going! Think about blogging about this." I was SO irritated! I did NOT want to run. But I did. Nearly out of breathe and dying, I jogged. However, I will admit that I wanted to push Keelie down onto the pavement. LOL. I told her so afterward and we laughed. I quit being mad at her a minute later and was pretty happy with her when we finished and I did the WHOLE thing. Jogged EVERY time the program said to. I DID IT! I ran. I will admit my running/jogging was the slowest a person has ever done it. It's kind of like a fast walk with a bounce. But I DID IT! Yay! Here's the proof in the photo!

It's good to have a best friend who calls ya on your crap. Keelie knew I wasn't going to start this thing on my own. She showed up and made me do it and I'm SO glad she did. Now that's a best friend. Love ya Keelie!