Measurements

Right Arm: 12"
Left Arm: 11.5"
Right Thigh 23.5"
Left Thigh: 23.5"
Waist: 36"
Ribs: 35.5"
Bust: 42"

Weight: 167.2

When I told my shrink about this project, he suggested that long with keeping tabs on my overall weight, that I should also do my overall circumference. The idea being that while my mass may not change, how and where that mass is distributed may.

As you can see, I liked the idea.

I hate running.

I always have, and I probably always will. I honestly believe that the best I can possibly hope for is that one day I will enjoy the effects of running so much that I will tolerate the activity itself.

As the bumperstickers say:
Today is not that day.
Tomorrow isn't looking good either.

Of course, both today and tomorrow would look a whole lot better if I were still actively attempting to run, which I am not.

Confused? Let me 'splain...

As the spring academic semester began to wind down I began Week one/Day one of the Couch to 5K program. I made a set playlist composed of the best and brightest from my limited iTunes library, and set out to tame both the mean streets of my neighborhood and my cardiovascular system.

This worked brilliantly. I was jazzed I was actually doing something. It was hard, but it wasn't so hard that I couldn't overcome. It's with this resolve that I progressed on to Week two. Made a play list, glacially jogged my way around. I would alternate between going out in the wee hours of the morning, or after I'd returned home from the office. Things were looking up. I was a force to be reckoned with! Fear my forward progress.

Week three arrived with with a bang, and ended with a whimper. Not because of any physical issues. Heck, far from it. The entire time I was jogging I didn't have a single negative physical issue. Oh sure I was out of breath, but my muscles weren't sore. I had no aches or pains. Just...a little trouble catching my breath after the final jog segment. No, the whimper came from my head when confronted with the stress of finals.

See, I was enrolled in a graduate course in Human Anatomy this past semester, and when time came for the final I only had so much exertion to offer, so I bailed on jogging in favor of having more study time. And then, because I have massive motivational issues, that bailing continued a week after my exams.

So now we're two weeks post my exams, and I've jogged all of once in that time. That one day I did make it out I barely made it through the redo of Week three, which was as crushing to me as I'd imagine failing at a blind attempt at Week four would have been.

I told myself that this week was the week. I have very few social responsibilities, work has lightened up with summer just around the corner, and it's nice enough out that I should have been all good to go.

Only I'm not. Sunday night the post-nasal drip started dripping. Today my nasopharanx is a gravely mess. Sleep comes, but it stays about two hours at a stretch. My brain is elsewhere.
Now, instead of jogging, I'm just trying to keep myself from getting a full on sinus infection.

This doesn't mean I'm done, or down for the count. I still have a very strong desire to get back on the training course. I have a race to keep in mind, after all. What it does strongly hint at though, is that I may have to start Couch to 5K from the beginning again, just to work my way up to the cardiovascular groove I was in before.

The good news that instantly springs forth from this is that now I can effectively blog how I got my groove back. Originally I wanted to chronicle what it's like to go from someone who hates running, to someone who runs...while hating it, but for the longest time found it impossible to think of a good opening entry for the project.

Ta-daa!

So welcome, those of you crazy few who've made it here.
Welcome to the story of a woman who hates running coming to grips with the fact that she signed up for a 5K race without ever having run a single mile.