graduate!

you may have caught my tweet/facebook post about this last saturday, but here it is in bloggy stone: i graduated from the couch to 5k plan that i started a few weeks ago.

i was sooooooo couch, yall. i have a desk job, so i sit at a professional level, have a 20 minute driving commute to my house where i then sit on the couch and watch TV, sit to sew, sit to eat and then top it off by sleeping for 9 hours a night. when i started i hadn't truly exercised in maybe over a year and was a post-partum mom of a newly weaned infant and active 23 month old. you couldnt get more couch than me...outside of being cut out of your house and lifted via forklift. that was my next stop.

did i mention i am also SO lazy, not a self-motivator, and a gifted mental-gymnast when it comes to excuses? and that i have only run more than a continuous mile maybe 5 times in my entire athletic life and hated every moment of them even at my 13% body fat fittest? consider them mentioned.

so when i say anyone can do it...i mean it.

well, 8 weeks later, i officially have a case of the runs. I LOVE RUNNING!!!

my final week of the c25k plan was a 30 minute continuous run 3 times in a week. boo-ya. did it, loved it. could have gone further. i was ideally supposed to be hitting the 3 mile or 5k distance at 30 minutes, which i didn't. by about a half of a mile.

so i am SLLLLLOOOOOOWWW as christmas, hannukah and ramadan put together...but that doesn't stop me (though my pace at times IS shockingly close to being a full stop).

when i beefed things up about halfway through the program and decided to run every day possible, i knew that i wouldn't be able to maintain that for a long time. i made it 12 days before having to take a rest day due to having plans during my night-time running slot of 8-9 pm (thanks GA summer!). right now i average about 4.5 running days each week so i am happy.

i finished the 10 week program in about 7 weeks. i ran 79 miles, lost 10 pounds and wanted to die about 34 times. i also felt that all the sweat produced, bugs ingested, crazy looks received (thanks, headlamp!), and effort put forth was eight frillion percent worth it within 10 seconds of finishing each run.

i wanted to quit so many times. i wanted to take walking breaks in the middle of runs and cut the whole thing short so many times. but i listened to my little robotic coach on my c25k app as it piped up in the middle of kanye, fergie or gaga and did each workout as commanded. it was such a relief to just surrender to those cues rather than planning my route or intervals myself (and leaving room for slacking or rationalization). i earned so much respect for myself and self-confidence in that: not giving up, punking out or altering the plan to make it easier. the biggest loser contestants always say that finishing what they started is a better feeling than losing the weight and i always thought they were bonks. but now i get it. despite WANTING to stop when it was painful or hot or when i was tired, i knew that i wanted even MORE to get healthy, be in shape and reach this goal and i actually did it.

rational goal-setting keight does not often triumph over uncomfortable, scared, in-the-moment keight. this time she did. take that, you indulgent bitch-cakes (referring to lame-keight, not y'all)

so i celebrated with an ice cold bath (glory!) and by buying myself the $1.99 app for the bridge to 10k app. it's the program designed for peeps who have graduated couch to 5k and want to move up to long distances. what do you know? that's me.

since right after my first ever run i have actually had my self-doubting-yet-dreaming-big sights set on a half marathon. i was WAY to chicken to say it out loud until now, and still am not committed.

i actually wanted to set that goal because of an AMAZING running missionary i met online (cripes why does it sound so lamesauce!?) who i have a mega-crush on. she works for an awesome women's ministry in haiti and i actually found her family through CNN after the earthquake. she's just like me except for the fact that she actually does what she believes in and doesn't just talk about it, and she runs marathons and is wicked hot and fit. besides that though...we're twins. except she also has 7 kids from ages 3 to 21 and 3 of them are black. except for that too. i just have my two whiteys for now. FOLLOW THEIR BLOG. FALL IN LOVE WITH TARA.

i LOVE this lady. she is hilarious and real and flawed and feisty and sold out for jesus but pissed that it isnt easy or fair most of the time. she is my obi-wan.

so there's that. atlanta has 2 half marathons coming up: one in october and one in november. but then, hey howdy hey, my other blog-crush-turned-bff, raechel, started running at almost the exact same time as me AND had the exact same idea as me to run a half for a great cause. this is one instance that i didnt actually 100% rip off her idea. i actually pretend that she was inspired by me...even though it is coincidence.

anyway, raechel's half is in memphis and is in december. (join her now!) so if this is something that i really want to pursue, i have lots of options.

i am trying not to get ahead of myself. a 5k is like 25% of a half marathon. so i am not even close to ready yet. but there are lots of programs that say they can get me there. heck, there are couch to half-marathon programs that only take 17 weeks.

so for now i am on the 6-week bridge to 10k plan, which is the right vector and trajectory for a half anyway, and if i can pull that off, there may be some trigger pulling for a half this oct/nov/dec. mega-bonuses for the oct/dec ones because i would get to run WITH tara in october and raechel in december. november would be wonderful too because its a thanksgiving run and i would be very excited about the food afterward.

that's where i've been, where i am, and hopefully where i am going. congratulations, class of june 2011 c25k graduates! i am throwing my blinking headlamp heavenward in celebration...but making sure i find it when it lands because i am going to need it to keep running at night. because despite 95+ degree temps these past 6 weeks, the first day of summer was just yesterday. old spice's stock just went through the roof when they read my plan to keep running.