Thursday 11 March 2010

Learning to Run

It isn't like I need another thing on my plate a the moment ... but over the last 6 months my wee body has undergone a bit of a battering and I came to the realization that I need to get my strength, flexibility and stamina back. Mainly, to feel better about myself. Ideally, it would be great to aim towards getting back to my pre-baby weight from 2007, but realistically, I just want to feel strong again.


Picture via Your Fitness Guru

And so a few weeks back, I decided to join a friend in her quest for fitness. My main goal was to loose the pudding that I put on when I had my daughter. But the opportunity to participate in the Mother's Day Classic appeared, and both of us thought "why not!". It is 8 weeks away and the best case scenario, is that we make it around the Tan in one piece. The worst case scenario, we 1/2 jog and 1/2 walk. So to aid us in our quest, we meet weekly at a gym to work out and now we have something to train towards.



Tonight I ran for 3 minutes on the treadmill (I can hear you laughing at me ..). Now I know that running on a tready and running outside is different, but it is a start. I need to strengthen my cardio-vascular system, my muscles and my breathing as well.

Fitting in training around work and Tori is going to be fun, but I have worked out a few destinations that might encourage me. On a Saturday morning, a latte is 0.8kms away, my training partners house is 3.4kms away and my closest material store is 1.7kms away. Don't you just love whereis!

A few blogs and podcasts I have come across along the way; Penguins Don't run, Steve Runner Phedippidations Podcast (a bit quirky, but I quite enjoy it) and fitness guru post on runing music.

9 comments:

bubbachenille said...

I started at the gym about two weeks ago to get rid of my baby pudding too! My twins are 30 this year !!! Good luck with your fitness goals.
Miriam

Phlogistan said...

Good on you Margaret! I've also put on a bit of weight (mainly due to job changes) and last night went to the gym for my first ever P/T session. Not as gruelling as I'd feared, and actually quite fun. Hopefully we'll both enjoy the trip down!

Cheers,
Paul

Little Cooties said...

Congrats on making the decision to better yourself, and to help make you feel better about yourself. It's such a huge thing to do with all the juggling that we as mothers do. A few weeks ago I also decided to do something about the extra stomach muscles that I have and feel so much better for doing something for myself.
you go girl!

Kis said...

Every little bit helps you get started and that's the hard bit!
Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Good luck - you might find mapmyrun.com is good too for mapping distances - you dont have to register to use the mapping service. :)

Libster said...

well done... im hoping to do the round the bay later in the year, wont be the 'big one' but more like the 40 or 80km... my gym buddy is recovering from a hysterectomy and is hoping to be back at the gym in the next week or two.... ive stuffed up my foot so running isnt an option at the momment.... interval training is the best.... run a little walk a little... repeat over and over!!

Jessica said...

Best of luck with keeping the new fitness regime going - running is tough so I really admire all those who do!

Pauline Wiles said...

Hooray for you! Nobody's laughing at you; I remember all too well when a mile seemed like forever and now I'm in training for my first marathon!
Stick with it, don't try to go too quickly, and I can almost promise you, you'll be hooked before you know it. It's wonderful to explore just what your body can do.

Karen said...

I have goals like this.... I hope yours goes better than mine ;)

I'll admit I haven't looked at the podcasts you linked to, and as you can see I'm very behind in my blog reading, but...

Have you looked at interval training? I found that got me up to a longer running speed rather quickly.

If you google Couch to 5K there are lots of links and pod casts for that, which sounded good to me, I just never got started on it.