Starting 2026 Right

 

I have been more active in the past week than I have been in a while. On New Years Day, Chad and I went to the local state park and walked the trail across the dam and back. It was about 2.5 miles, and it wore me out. A few days later, we went to a Colorado Mammoth game and had to park fairly far back (most people do), so we had to walk quickly into the stadium. It was chilly after, so I quickly walked back to the car. The lower half of my body was so sore that I struggled to sleep that night. The way my body reacted to these perfectly normal events was incredibly discouraging and made me double think my goal of running a 10K on Memorial Day. Is there even a chance for me to get in shape enough to reach this goal? Yes. I just need to put in the effort. 

I am doing a few things to reach this goal. First, I am tracking my steps and increasing my step count goals. This week, my goal is embarrassingly small, but it is actually higher than my average since I have been working from home. I am not going to look back at where I was in 2019 when I was working in an office. I am going to look and what I can and am accomplishing. Right now, my goal is to hit at least 3,000 steps a day. It will go up to 4,000 steps next week, 5,000 the following week, and so on until I am comfortable with a step goal that both challenges me and is not so high that it is impossible. Second, I am getting to the gym to do strength training and go on the treadmill or elliptical. I would prefer to run/walk on the treadmill, but if they are all taken as they were yesterday, I will do speed drills on the elliptical (one of the preloaded options available). I believe that doing these things consistently, I will become a stronger runner and may possible do better than I did before I started getting injured. Could I possibly have less injuries, too? One can only hope. 

The speed drill I did yesterday were fun. I started with a 3-minute warm up followed by intervals of 30 second sprints and 90 second cool downs. There were 8 intervals. The first two were at a 3 resistance setting, the next two were at a 4, and the last two were at a 6. During each sprint, the machine measure my "sweat score." The higher the number the better. The goal was to get a higher score each time. I was successful until the last one. At the end, I felt like I had a good work out. 

Good News/Bad News

This week was good and bad. On the good side, I have exercised 5 times this week. On the not so good side, I have gained 2 pounds. Now the question is, do I let the bad get me down or focus on the good and run with it?
Chad and I have been trying to implement one change at a time to our diet and routines. We have done some good things so far. I took me three weeks to get into a better routine that could include exercise, and I know it will be a continued struggle, but I am glad that surpassed my exercise goal this week. As far as the diet part goes, we have decided that we will have at least one fruit or veggie with dinner every night. Since he works a lot of nights, this will mean he has the left overs the next day. I may have left overs for lunch the next day too. That way I don't have to run around and throw random crap together and hope that it will work for lunch. I am hoping that it won't take me as long to implement this change as it has been taking to implement an exercise routine. I am also hoping that by filling up a bit on veggies, I will not be putting as many calories in my system.