Can You Believe It?

It's Week 12!  As some of you may recall, I wrote an entry titled It's Official back in February announcing my registration for the Cancer to 5K training program for this spring.  We got started on March 16 & here we are--12 weeks later.  Our Race Day is Sunday, June 5...just a few days away.

I know I haven't reported my progress in awhile.  I thought I'd just share some highlights of the past month...

As we started the month of May, Coach Bob had me running about 4 minutes at a time with a 3 min recovery & I was up to about 35-40 minutes of these intervals.  Then I get an email asking me to come to one of the group workouts, if possible, because he has a "special" workout he'd like to do with me.  The one Wednesday evening that worked for my schedule happened to be the day after I turned half of 70.  I showed up & while Coach gave everyone else their prescribed workouts for the evening, he waited to tell me that I would be doing the 12 minute test.  What's the 12 minute test?  It's running--for 12 minutes.  I said, "Coach, I've never run more than 4 minutes at a time."  And his response was simply "Great, this will be just like doing that 3 times."  Exactly.  Not.

Well, long story short--I ran that damn 12 minutes without stopping once.  It was not fun.  It was not neat.  It was terrible.  Coach was very "I told you so." My emotions were so out of whack I literally cried when I got in the car.  But I did it.  Thus, Coach named me "a runner."

You see, after that workout, my prescribed workouts changed at home.  That was a Wednesday.  Friday my workout was to run for 25 minutes--to just see how long I could run.  Guess what.  I ran 26:07 that day.  Was I the slowest runner ever?  Yep.

Next week, more of the same.  In fact, on Saturday the 21st my workout was 40 minutes--just run.  We were in VA Beach visiting family.  Kiddos were preoccupied so Joel set out on the park trail to run with me.  First comment "This warm up thing is kinda nice...I'm not used to this."  Yeah, my warm ups tend to be on the long side of warming up as I have to psych myself up for long runs.  Then we started running. Hubby did good--he was quiet & kept his comments to himself.  He offered to carry my t-shirt & water bottle for me. Only once did he offer a suggestion & my quick response was "Shut up.  That's not what Coach Bob says."  So he did.  In case you're wondering, NO, I did not make it the full 40 minutes without stopping to walk.  I walked a total of 3 1/2 minutes out of the 40.  Not too terrible for a new-to-running 1/2 of 70 yr old woman.  As we were cooling down, I said to Joel, "Thanks for being patient with me today."  His response, "No problem, but it's not easy running that slow."  More than 15 years together and the man still doesn't think before he speaks...

I survived the run--Joel survived running slowly with me.

So here we are--5 days till the race.  My goal on Day 1 was to be able to run the whole 5K without walking.  I don't know that I've gotten myself to that endurance level yet, honestly.  But I do know, I sure can run a long way--at least 2 miles before I have to stop because I've done it more than once.  And that's more than I can say for 5 months ago.  Joel also mentioned that my walking pace was faster than ever before during our warm up.  I just have to believe that the simple act of me walking at a faster pace will save our marriage as we attempt to walk 60 miles over 3 days together in November!  

I have learned a lot about myself in the past 12 weeks.  Those 17 pounds I had gained when I went to see my GYN in January?  Well, I don't know that I've lost much of that weight, but I've seen a change in my body & my endurance.  What's most important is that my kids have watched me working toward this--always asking if they can come outside to exercise with me (my girls biked 12 miles the Saturday Joel & I ran together)--and they'll be there on Sunday to cheer me to the finish line.  I don't want my girls to get caught up in their weight & body image issues, but to just have role models showing them how to live a healthy life style.  

Race Day

Sunday, June 5: 7am 

Capital Crescent 5K in Bethesda Maryland  

Wednesday, June 8 is Surgery #6 for Round 2.  It's minor & outpatient but will throw me off my game for a few weeks.  I don't know if I'll continue running when I'm released to workout again.  Stay tuned...stranger things have happened!