Back To The Beginning.

I've had a confession brewing for a while. I've also had some really good intentions sitting on the back burner for a while. Today I woke up and reconciled the two.

I fell off the C25K bandwagon. I fell off over halfway though the program as I was ready to start week 7 of 9. I had worked up to a route that was about 4.5km. I ran a good portion of it. And then I stopped. I do admit, I was a little discouraged at the time. It had taken 8 weeks to get me to this point in the program and other than a bit of cardio-vascular endurance, I wasn't seeing too many benefits.

As well, I smashed my toe while trying to walk through an office chair. With all the swelling and bruising, I couldn't get my runners on. That lasted almost a week. Shortly after, I poisoned my dog. Not on purpose, mind you. But it was a month-long situation involving copious amount of puke and poop. Now, who wants to analyze my belief that I can only get some exercise if I take the dog along? Because if you understand the reality of taking the Skittish White Dog out and about, you'd understand that it is an undertaking all in itself. SO really, I make my C25K intervals frustrating as well as physically taxing. Clever, huh?

Fast forward to the recent future: Lately I've begun to feel fed up with myself. And I'm not just a little guilty for stopping all attempts at exercise completely. I read a timely message somewhere out there in cyberspace that talked about getting over yourself and just getting your stuff done. I am my own worst excuse. So I decided that before eating, before getting the kids up, before starting the laundry, putting the garbage out or pulling the day's school work, I just had to go outside and walk the friggin' dog already! I reasoned with myself: if you're walking the dog, then you might as well do the C25K thing again.

To cement this plan in my daily to-do's, on the weekend I went to the local Zeller's and picked up a sports bra, some yoga pants and a couple of layering athletic shirts. I was going for the 'now that I have it, I'd better use it' personal guilt trip. Last night I loaded up my Shuffle and prepared mentally for 8 x 30second running intervals. Only it wasn't 8 x 30seconds. It was 8 x 60second running intervals. Happy Monday Morning to me.

In summary:

• Most important thing: I got up and moving this morning.
• Most surprising thing: Noone I passed stared at my jiggling bottom.
• Most gross thing: the dog stopped running on the path and ate some bloody dead furry mass that I don't want to think about.
• Most encouraging thing: I'm going to get up and do it again tomorrow. Not the running part, just a nice half hour walk with some peppy music.
• Most inspiring thing: I really forgot how much I love fall. Great colours. One really should be outdoors some every day :-)