10 miles!!!

Over the past few weeks I have attended a few classes at the Y (less than I should, but more than I would wihtout the membership) and jogged every Sunday with W and his dad. I still need to be more deligent for sure, but I am not totally off the path. My friend A recently joined the Y also and talked me into joining her for Thursday night Zumba classes. I love it. Dancing has always been my favorite form of movement and the energy in the room is so positive. I think I will enjoy it more when I get the routines down and can get more into the music instead of concentrating so hard on the steps. She has also gone with me to two Saturday morning Bodypump classes. Of course for one of them, I was late and then had to go sit down because I was dizzy and nauscous. With the jogging things have gone much better than with the classes. Of course that is only because I am trying not to let W down and am trying to impress his dad. I think it is working - somewhat at least. The weekend after our 6.4 mile run, W and I went camping at Brazos Bend State Park. That Sunday his dad came out and we did a 4.2 mile jog around the park. The weather wasn't great (it started raining on us), but it was a neat trail. The alligators were out and the birds were beautiful. The following weekend we went back Memorial Park to do his dad's River Oaks trail. He told us that it would be a little longer than the last trail we had done so I was expecting 7 miles. That is the furthest I have ever gone before, but I felt confident that I could do it. However once we got going it felt like we were never going to stop! I don't know the route so I had no context for where we were on the trail or how much further we had to go. That was frustrating and I resisted the urge several times to ask how much more we had to go. I finally broke down and asked when every joint in my right leg started to hurt. I was told that we were well over half way. That didn't help much, but I kept trucking along as best I could. It was SLOW going, but at least I was going! When we finally got back to the park, W split off to do an extra mile loop around the park while his dad and I finished the last mile stretch. He is easy to run with because he is so calm. He is in great shape and can chat while he jogs. I feel bad because I can't breathe well enough to chat back. But, he did push me to push it the last few yards so that I could finish strong. It wasn't until we finished the trail that he told me that we had just completed a TEN mile run!!!!!!!! WHAT?! I would NEVER have thought that I would be capable of going so far. (It took us 2 hours and 11 minutes.) It was an awesome feeling to know that I accomplished that!!! Of course, the physical feeling was MISERABLE - my hips, knees, ankle, and feet were KILLING me!! I moved like a 100 year old woman for the entire rest of the day. UGH. R and W keep telling me that I should try a half marathon with them. I suppose that if I can go 10 miles that I should be able to go 13 - right? They are doing one at the end of January. I am not sure that I want to attempt that one just yet. Instead I am going to aim for the Bearathon in March. Two of my sorority sisters want me to do it with them. It is the "toughest half in Texas" becuause it is not a flat trail which is going to make it a crazy challenge. So, I may have to try one in late February just to get my feet wet on a flat trail before trying the ups and downs of the Cameron Park area. Either way I finally think that I can do it! :)

New Trail New Triumph!

I didn't realize until just now how long it has ben since I had posted. Despite my poor devotion to the blog, I am happy to report that I haven't totally abandoned my attempts to improve my health. In fact, this week I have worked out 5 times!! That's awesome right?! In October, I joined the YMCA and started trying out some of the classes they offer. I haven't been as consistant as I should be, but I do really like one of them. It is called Boypump and meets every Tuesday at 4:30pm. Basically, i is aerobics with barbells. Man, it kicks my butt! I also kind of like the 4:30pm Curcuit Training class on Wednesday nights. That time works really well for me because it is right on my way home after tutoring. This week, in addition to the two classes, I jogged in the park Monday and did the curcuit machines on my own Friday. But the major achievement of my week was this morning's jog with my boyfriend W and his Dad. His Dad is amazing. At almost 70 years old he has run 20 marathons and does the 5.25 mile trail he took us on for his "recovery" runs after big races. Today he was "slow" because he is recovering from foot surgery. Of course by "slow" he means my 12 or so minutes mile time which I worked very hard to get down to. I am SOO proud of myself! I've jogged a few times in the past few weeks, but I haven't made it past 2 miles. I had no idea that I would still be capable of 5.25. He refused to tell us how long the trail was, which was actually great because it allowed me not to stress or pysch myself out. Instead I just enjoyed the beauty of the trail, which lead through the Houton Polo Club (a place I didn't even know existed). The whole trip took 1 hour 20 minutes for me. I picked up my pace for the last half mile and was able to sprint the last few yards, which is amazing to me after the first 5 miles. :) I feel GREAT!!!