One. More. Time.

Here's hoping it's the last time...

 

Actually, my goal isn't to promote that I've updated the blog once I've completed all of Week 1 this time. But I have to update it anyway to document if I fail again.

 

I'd say it's getting ridiculous, but the more I read about it, the more common this is...people will get excited, start a routine, go out for one or two days...and then quit and start making excuses.

 

I tell myself no excuses. I tell myself I won't quit. And yet...I keep doing it. The worst part is that I'm not even meaning to quit when I quit...I just make an excuse ("Oh, 'The Bachelorette' is on tonight.") and then do it again the next day and the next day...and then before you know it, I haven't worked out in over a month.

 

I feel fatter than before...I would wager that if I stepped on a scale, I'd be close to 300 pounds again. It's frustrating...a lot of these blogs are about success, but for the most part, mine is about failure after failure after failure...and I want to stop that.

 

Last night, I started C25K yet again. This time, however, I'm going about it a little differently - on a treadmill with no incline. I figure that once I can run 30 minutes, then I can start throwing terrain at me. The good part of the treadmill is that it tells me exactly how far I've gone so I can mark definitive progress.

 

I recently discovered when the YMCA took a debit out of my checking account that I was still a member there, so I dug up my pass and headed over to the Franklin Family YMCA. I've determined a smaller goal of mine is to go to every Y in Middle Tennessee and review them...I mean Y not? Bwahahahaha. But I digress.

 

I went to the Y, walked in and quickly found the Wellness Center (the doors are marked with signs above them and it was on my left as soon as I walked in). The treadmills were at the front of the room in front of a big glass wall...I wasn't a fan of that, considering I kind of don't like to be seen when I run. Preferably, I'd be at a treadmill tucked away in a corner somewhere away from wandering eyes. Yes, I'm self-conscious. Instead, I felt like I was essentialy on stage at the front of the room. The windows, however, provided a different experience because they made me actually feel like I was going somewhere instead of just standing on a treadmill. There was also a television in front of each treadmill. Unfortunately, mine did not have a remote control and was stuck on Fox News. Luckily my iPod and Jack Johnson's En Concert were there to save me.

 

The run itself wasn't really anything to write home about...but look at me, writing home about it. It was the typical C25K Week 1 Day 1 (W1D1) workout - 5 minute warmup, eight 90 second walking intervals, nine 60 second running intervals, 5 minute cooldown. On my first interval, I tried to run at 5 MPH, but realized there was no comfortable way I could do that, so I backed it down to 4.5. The rest of my intervals were run at 4.3-4.5 MPH (although I think I had a 4.2 in there) and most of my walking intervals were done between 2.8-3.0 MPH. I was a little disappointed by how slow I could comfortably run, but I had to keep reminding myself that it was only the first day - endurance first, speed later.

 

When I finished, I had completed 1.68 miles in 31 minutes, a snail-like average speed of 3.2 MPH, meaning I ran a penguin-esque pace of 18:45.