So far, so good

I fully intended to run on January 2, if only just for a few minutes to keep myself in the habit. Life had other plans for me (all good ones here in Florida), so I decided to swim instead. Yesterday, January 3, I ran for 30 minutes. Ok, not really. I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and I ran 1 minute, walked 2 minutes, ran 1 minute, walked 2, etc. for 30 minutes. From minute 28-30, I ran. I was feeling pretty good, and with my husband on a treadmill next to me, his cheerleading at its best, I ran those last two darn minutes at 5.9 mph, and I survived! Today I swam for about 20 minutes, and tomorrow I have a yoga class at my hometown YMCA (our fantastic trip to sunny southwest FLA ends tonight, when we hop on a plane back to the chilly midwest). My yoga class is at 6am, which is going to be a shock to the system on several levels, but I am looking forward to it, having never tried yoga.

As I've said, I'm not a runner. Never have been, but I'm ready to try it out. For me, running for the bit of time that I have is a HUGE accomplishment. I have been wondering of late if it's important to define oneself as a runner and just go from there. I keep thinking that perhaps telling myself that I'm 'not a runner' is really counterproductive? Because I've never really tried to run at all. I usually get to about minute 5 (before doing the running-walking alternation) and then give up. In fact, I'm not sure that I've ever voluntarily run a mile! I've done it under duress (soccer and volleyball coaches who made me, and then insulted me for being so slow...but I digress), and I've hated every minute of it. Perhaps it will be different now that I'm choosing to do this marathon thing. Perhaps because it's up to me, I'll enjoy it. So far, I'm enjoying it.

I have decided that I really need to workout (not necessarily run, of course) at least 5 days a week. If I don't, my workouts somehow shrink from 4 days a week to 3 days a week to, eventually, no days a week, which leaves me wondering why my clothes don't fit. So, although some would say a minimum of 5 days a week at the gym is a lot, I kind of have to do it, if only for the habit of it all. Some days will be harder workouts than others, but as long as I find way to the Y at least 5 times/week, I think I can do this marathon thing!