7/25/10-Getting back to it again

So, once I did my 10K race back in April I started to get tired. Worn out. I think I pushed too much...and so I crashed for a long while. Only 37.35 miles in May and a whopping 4.5 miles in June; so far for July I've only gotten out there twice (that includes today) for 5.7 miles. I just was so worn out and my motivation tanked big time-not just for the running but for all my exercising. And when that happened, guess what followed? Yup, you guessed it, the food. Not so much the types of food (although there were many more added "goodies") but more so the portions and such. And so I've gained weight back...now, couple that with the fact that my position at work was eliminated and my last day was-get this-my 40th birthday, and my downward spiral is complete. I wound up gaining back 11 pounds of the 45 I lost.

Forward to yesterday. I finally sat down to map out my training plan for this fall to prepare for my first full marathon-hopefully, participating depends on the job situation as I am about to start my fourth week of being unemployed. I decided that regardless of the job thing I will follow my training plan so I will be prepared no matter what. I do already have two half marathons (10/31 and 12/12) that I'm already registered for so I'd need to be training anyway so I figure I should be prepared. Anyway, as I saw the amount of training I'll be doing I thought to myself, "You're nuts-you are back out of shape, you've gotta get a hold of yourself or you'll never pull this off. Now get up off your butt and get back to work!" And so I am.

Yesterday I tried out the warm up and cool down of my new Heavyweight Yoga DVD (boy did that feel good stretching everything out) and I am looking forward to doing a lot more of that, probably using it as part of my cross training regimen in addition to the elliptical and stationary bike. It's a great DVD by Abby Lentz doing yoga as a "big" person. Then I made myself go to bed at a decent time last night so I could get up early today and go for a walk/run before it got too hot out. I had to really push myself out the door, and once out there I finally got going...unfortunately even at 8am it was already 85 degrees with 75% humidity giving a "feels like" of 93. Thank goodness the clouds were obscuring the sun most of the way or my outing would have been way shorter than the 3.03 miles I was able to pull off.

I started out doing 3 min walk/1 min run but after 4 run intervals just walked the rest as my heart rate was in the 160s just walking...like I said, I've been out of it quite a while and as a result am almost back to square one fitness-wise. I felt totally exhausted afterward but I'm glad I got back out there. Now I'm off to plot my return plan...my official "training" for the marathon in January that I hope to do starts in four weeks and I need to start getting back into the swing of things because I will NOT disappoint myself. I WILL be ready for January. I have come too far not to make it.