Walk or Run?

"I've never been into running so I was content just to watch."

This was a statement I made in my last post in regards to being a spectator of the 5k my hubby and many of my closest friends participated in. I've really never been one to give in to peer pressure & I've been working hard to care less & less what people think of me. However, as my body is not 20 years old anymore but 27 (as I was so lovingly reminded of by my primary care physician this week), I've realized my metabolism continues to slow down and walking 1.8 miles (the distance around our subdivision 3x) is probably not going to be sufficient for me to be in shape and/or tone my existing body.

Let's be clear, I'm certainly not unhappy with my overall weight...I'm unhappy with my inability to run for any continuous period of time without feeling winded & I'm unhappy with the little pieces of pudge that exist in all the wrong places. Sure, I can cover those up with my nice work clothes & no one knows the difference, but I do. And let's keep in mind that in exactly 30 days I'll be gracing the beaches of Mexico with my extremely pasty & less than in shape body sporting only a bikini. Obviously I realize that 30 days is a short period of time but a girl can dream right?

Anyways, with the end of the 5k brought the beginning of a new goal for me. Sure, it seems very small & extremely minor compared to all those people who are running 5ks for training runs or running consistently on the treadmill for 40-60 minutes at a time--but for me it's all about having a goal that achievable. So...my goal with Hubby's support is to be able to run a little over 1 mile at a fairly speedy pace, with NO walking. 2 laps around our subdivision is 1.2 miles and that's my goal--and then we'll see after that.

I've started out fairly slow with running the East/West roads each lap for now. We're still going a total of 1.8 miles but with quite a bit of running & 10-15 jumping jacks at each corner. Yup, we look like dorks but at each corner we stop & do jumping jacks for some extra cardio. We also finish up our nightly routine with about 10-15 minutes of abs...oh how I hate abs. Not as much as running, but ab workouts are torture!

I haven't set an official deadline to reach my goal, but for now I'm just hoping to reach it by the end of the summer...which Hubby says is easily attainable. For all you serious runners out there, I realize this is a ridiculously simple taks...but for this girl running anywhere except for to a shoe sale is unheard of. 5ks are still not in my grand plans, but running seems to be an easy & cheap way to exercise Bogey, spend time with Hubby & maybe even get a little bit better looking bod!

Oh and just for the record...I'm still not into running & I'm still more than content to watch.