The evening of my last day of work, I ran one mile. It was the first time I had attempted to run since March and while it wasn't easy, I felt good afterwards. While I timed this run, I didn't push myself too much. I was curious to see what I could do without a heavy push. That timed mile was 11:38. Meh. I've been running about three times a week and the other day I was able to run that same mile at 10:19. Right now, I'm really just trying to build up my strength because this has to be the worst shape I've ever been in. I know I've said that before but this is worse than that worst.
As much as I disliked my commute, the one mile walk each way did provide exercise. I was a tiny bit fearful over what would happen with the loss of that walk five days a week but thus far, I've been able to walk and/or find steps with activities such as cleaning the van. I'm going to have to pull out some creativity this summer when the girls are home. I've added a little bit of ab work, not too much, and I want to get back into strength training again but that will have to wait for now.
Before I left work, the general theme of "out of shape" had come into focus. There were a few of us who were all about the same age with children and we all held similar thoughts. It was so incredibly difficult to balance work and home that staying healthy was inconsistent. At some point, something had to give and unfortunately, that something was quite often the time to work out. I'm making it more of a priority now because I have the time.
One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to stay active and I still agree with that goal. I find it hard to believe that I ran a five mile race two and a half years ago with a decent time. I wouldn't be able to fully run a 5K right now.
Remain patient and consistent.
1 comment:
Two years ago I needed to lose weight. Prior to that I had been only running, and fairly inconsistently at that. I started the T25 program and was amazed at how out of shape I was. But, adding in strength training and honestly, anything other than running, got me back into shape relatively quickly. Plus, it's only 25 minutes and you can do it at home (without leaving the house like you need to with running). Over the last two years I've worked out inconsistently, so started the T25 workouts again. I thought I was in the worst shape of my life but turns out, I wasn't at all. I think the inconsistent strength training I had been doing helped me stay in shape more than the inconsistent running.
This is all to say, if your goal is to get back into running, by all means do that. If your goal is to get into shape, then I would back off the running and use your exercise time to do something more strength training related. Running just isn't going to do much at this point.
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