fitNhealthy - June 2010

It’s a new month, which means it’s time for a new fitNhealthy challenge, but I’m a little delayed in kicking things off this month or even in tying up last month…

But, hey, better late than never, right?

Let’s recap last month first, shall we? Let’s see…according to THIS POST my goal last month was to do at least 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days a week in the month of May.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really keep track of my exercise to be able to tell you whether or not I was successful in this challenge, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that I was, because I’ve been doing Shred at the gym on Mondays(which is an hour long class) as well as usually 25 to 45 minutes of cardio before class, and then I’ve been doing C25K (more on this in a bit) at least 3 days a week. I don’t usually go more than a day without exercise, some days doing 30 minutes, other days doing 2 hours, so I’m going to call the May challenge a success.

Enter June. Ami’s challenge this month is to “try at least one NEW exercise activity each week”. We are also building on May’s challenge to exercise 30 minutes a day/5 days a week.

Before anything else, I have to confess that I didn’t start June off very fitNhealthy at all. In fact, I kicked the month off on vacation, and I decided to give my body a vacation from exercise and from eating healthy. I went away, I ate whatever I wanted, and I barely exercised besides some walking around for the first 4 days of the month. Throw in the last few days of month, and I gave myself a 6 day stretch of no exercise and eating like crap. And well, by that 6^th day, I felt like crap. I realized after coming home that those 6 days of no exercise were the longest stretch I had gone without working out in about 4 months. And my body wasn’t happy with me.

And this actually made me happy. My body craves exercise now, and so does my mind. This is a good thing, and I’ll take it.

So, anyway, onto June’s challenge then. I’m actually not going to join Ami on her particular challenge, because I’m sort of hitting the peak of my own.

See, I’m on week 5 of C25K. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Couch to 5k (C25k) is a 9 week running program geared toward “non-runners”, to do exactly what it says, get you from your couch to running a 5k. You can learn more about it here.

For those who are unfamiliar with me, and how I used to feel about running, let me sum it up in one sentence I used to say when people would talk to me about running: “I run if someone is chasing me”.

And then the damndest thing happened. Last year, while out on my “power walks” I decided to start running. And I loved it. Except, I was doing it all wrong, with the wrong shoes, on uneven ground, and I hurt myself. So, I decided once again that running wasn’t for me.

But I missed it.

Then this year, I learned about C25K, and I decided to check it out. I also decided to buy the right shoes for my gait (I underpronate, in case you are wondering).

And now, here I am, week 5, and right before my little vacation, I ran two 8 minute stretches. Without question, the long straight stretch of running I have ever done. TWICE. Up until 2 days ago, when I ran a 10 minute stretch and then an 8 minute stretch.

Because of my little break, I’m repeating week 5 starting this week, and gearing up for that scary day 3, which involves a straight 20 minute run. I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that yet, so I might repeat days 1 and 2 of week 5 a few times before I get there. But I will do it.

And that is my fitNhealthy challenge for June. By the end of the month, I’m hoping to be able to not only finish week 5, but also week 6. If I can follow the C25K plan exactly, I should be ending Week 7 just as June comes to a close, but I’m giving myself a break, and taking my time with it, so I’ll be happy if I can be ready to begin week 7 by the end of June. (Week 7 is when the straight running, 25 minutes each day, begins).

Along with C25K, I’m also going to keep doing Shred on Mondays, and try to squeeze in a little bit more strength training on my in-between run days.

That’s my fitNhealthy goal this month. What’s yours??