Part of being the best me I can be is working out on a regular basis. I’m not going to pretend that I go to the gym every day, or that I never make excuses to not go, because that wouldn’t be true. But, I have been trying to go on a regular basis and feel like I am doing okay with that. Here is the problem: I love actually working out. After the 3rd minute on the treadmill I get into it and am happy to be there. I just HATE everything leading up to that. I hate driving past my house to get there. I hate changing clothes. I hate finding parking in the parking lot, mostly because people seem to forget they are there to work out and block the parking lot trying to find the closest spot possible. I hate the other people in the gym. But I know I need to work out. I know working out is part of being healthy.
I have always been athletic, and played tennis all through high school (and was pretty good) and softball until I wrecked my knee and couldn’t play catcher anymore. I am pretty sure I have belonged to a gym in some form or another since I was 16 and going to physical therapy after having my ACL and meniscus repaired. The place I went had an office in the gym and it was just natural to continue to work out there and keep strengthening my knee.
In the past year I have started running. Despite all my athletic prowess ;) I have never been a runner, especially of long distances (and by long distances I mean over a mile). Both of the sports I played involved more sprinting than long distance running. I managed to have good stamina just by playing these sports, especially tennis, all the time. Now that I no longer play any sports, I need to do other things to keep in shape. I find the elliptical boring, but will do 15 minutes or so after the treadmill to try to use different muscles.
The problem I am having is that I start getting better and better at running, and then my gym attendance drops off and I start back at square one. Well, last night Scott got a text from a friend of ours asking if we wanted to join him and his wife to do the Warrior Dash. I have heard a lot about it, and it seems fun. Well as fun as a 3 mile run with obstacles can be (and oh yeah, getting covered in mud!) Crawling through a tunnel? Sure! Crawling under barbed wire? Alright! Jumping over fire? Umm... sure? But there is beer at the end, and I will try almost anything once. The goal now is to be able to run the full three miles without stopping. Currently I am working on run/walk intervals while I build up to a constant run. The race is in May, so I have plenty time to get there, and I am really looking forward to this. Even if I suck, a friend told me that there are a lot people there who are only trying to have fun, and don’t care about time/winning.
Running + obstacles + mud + beer = awesome!
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