I'm walking (or running) on sunshine

Today, for the first time in probably 9 months, I ran outside.

Our tour is currently in Sacramento and the sun has been shining beautifully everyday.  I'm still getting over jet lag and have been waking up relatively early lately.  I've been wanting to start working out the last couple of days, but today was only the first time I've felt completely normal again.  So I strapped on my heart monitor, tied my running shoes and headed out the door.

The day was too beautiful to run indoors (not to mention the hotel doesn't have a gym) so I decided that I needed to just suck it up and get back on the horse so to speak.  I'm not going to lie, I was nervous.  I have been using this C210K to help me with my speed and I was afraid I would revert back to my slow self.  I was afraid that without the conveyor belt of the treadmill pushing me along that I wouldn't be able to keep running as long as I had been.  But, I decided to push all of these awful thoughts to the back of my mind and just do it.  (Thanks Nike.  No copyright infringement intended.  :) )

There is a park around the capitol building here in Sacramento, and I had heard this was a good place to run, so I headed in that direction during the warm and as soon as I reached it, it was time for me to start my first running leg.  I must say, I surprised myself!  I was definitely running faster than the last time I was outside and the running segments seemed to fly by!  It reminded me why I liked to run outside in the first place.  So many things distract me and I don't realize how long I'm running.  "Look at the pretty trees!  The pretty sky!  The cute kids playing on the capitol steps!  Oh wow, time to walk again..."

My heart rate definitely was higher than when I ran on the treadmill and because of that I burned a significant amount more than when I did this same day at the gym.  (I decided to repeat week 4 of the program since I took the past two weeks off.)

It started to get kind of warm towards the end of the run and I was gross and red faced.  But you know what?  I felt great.  I felt like I had accomplished something and jumped a hurdle that had been looming in front of me for months.  I had been scared to get back out there, and I proved to myself that this hard work that I'm putting back into my running is going to pay off.  I feel confident that I'm going to achieve my goal of a half marathon this time.  I have lots of time, and a will power that I didn't have before (or at least haven't had for a long time.)

Yay for success!

Getting back to normal

Sorry for being radio silent for a few weeks.  My tour had a few weeks off and that meant that I actually had some time off to travel for pleasure, not work.

I ended up going to Germany and Austria.  I also took the time off from  real life in terms of diet and exercise.  I did a lot of walking and wasn't too horrible in terms of diet, but I honestly have no clue what the effect of my time off meant for my weight.  I plan on weighing myself tomorrow so that I can make plans on how to proceed.

I am now currently back at work and in California/West Coast for the next few months.  That means that I will be spending as much time as possible outside and hopefully better eating.  I feel refreshed in all ways, shapes and forms and so I look forward to renewing my quest to lose these last 40 or so pounds.  I'm going to redo my last week of the Run to 10K program so that I don't overdo it this week.  I could run outside this week, but I'm apprehensive to do that until I'm able to run a few miles consecutively.  Since I'm also using the program to improve my speed, I just don't want to run outside yet since I can't measure my speed very well until after the fact.  I feel like I would slip into my comfort zone rather than push myself.

Anyway, that's what's going on with me.  I'm back.  I'm recharged.  I feel good and I'm ready to move forward.  If it turns out that I gained a few pounds while on vacation, I'm okay with that.  It's typical for people to gain.  I know that now that I'm getting back to a routine I will lose it.

My life is moving forward.