In which I write about going to the gym twice and scheduling my first race.
Last year I signed up and paid for an entry for the Broad Street Run. Last year I also did not make the race. No excuses; I just didn’t do it. So this year I quietly signed up thinking that there was no way I would be picked.
Guess who got picked?
By coincidence I had decided to start back at the gym and have been working through couch to 5K. Without making this a thing (I am totally making this a thing) I made a decision that Planet Fitness needs to earn that money it direct debits from me each month and I need more purple pens. Planet Fitness has pens that write purple ink and these are my rewards for attending the gym. In the two days that I have been hitting the gym and living to tell the tale I have observed that the headaches that normally plague me after a workout were non existence and my time on the treadmill was not sixth circlish.
In the past when I would workout, I’d have my bottle of water that I would sip out of, but never really finishing, maybe refilling from the water fountain. Once I left the gym I would sip some more but a headache would grab a hold of me and I would be down for the count. During these gym visits I drank, drank, drank water, refilling my bottle several times. Planet Fitness has a cool filtration system that allows me to refill my water bottle and the water is pretty tasty (not the tinny taste that water fountains can often produce). Not only did I not have a headache, I felt good and WANTED to go to the gym again.
So when I started my next workout, I was looking forward to seeing if my headacheless day was a fluke or if I was on to something. By accident I hit the cardio setting on the treadmill and after plugging in my stats, the treadmill came to the conclusion that my old, fat, self should not have a heart rate about 155.
Cool.
What I did not initially think was cool was that the machine would not allow me to run at the pace of 5.3 that I had been using as my jog pace during Couch to 5K. I could only ‘run’ at a pace of 4.5, which I found out five minutes into my workout.
Oof!
Instead of starting over, I just went for it. And the funny thing…it was OK. I felt good during and after my run. I may not have gone as far I had the day before when I was able to bump up the speed but I was also able to get into a nice groove and rhythm. I did not have to stop and was not winded during the jog part of couch to 5k.
It is a little humbling. usually when I work out I find myself competing with the person on the machine next to me. If they are running, then I run. If their incline is really, really high, I would find myself making my machine steeper. Today there was no one on the treadmill next to me to “race” or “challenge” and I just stayed in the moment and completed my workout.
Now that I have a race to prepare for, my first thought is to start running like crazy but instead I’ll listen to my body. Right now it’s telling me that it feels just fine, that I did enough and that it is ready to accept the return. I’m nervous about racing. I’ve already had one person call me out for my faux pas from last year and I feel like I don’t want that to happen again.
So, I’m packing my bag, making my plan and working on being ready to run.
The countdown is on.
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