Sunday, September 30, 2007

I'm not sick anymore, but I am sick and tired.....

In all honesty....I'm a total tunnel vision person. I get really excited about projects, ideas, new adventures, etc....but only for a short period of time. Then I get bored and as soon as something else comes along my focus moves to that. When I'm focused I'M COMPLETELY FOCUSED!! My hubby says that he has learned that my attention span is about a month.

But here's the deal. I'm kind of sick and tired of being this way. I mean in some ways I'm ok with it. But it gets annoying when I tell my husband about something new that I'm thinking about doing and I can see the "we'll see how long this one lasts" look in his eye. And what's MORE annoying than that is that HE'S RIGHT. Don't get me wrong. He's always supportive. I know perfectly well that it's my poor habits and lack of discipline that lead to my own down fall. So how do I change? I'm really not sure. I know that I'm better at staying focused when I have true accountability, if I'm doing something competitively, or if I'm trying to prove someone wrong. Maybe all of those reasons just mean I'm not healthy. UUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

So here is my plan. Pick ONE GOAL and accomplish it. I just simply can't do the 101 in 1001 because I could way too easily drop one goal to focus on another. But I'm going to put it here for the whole blog world to see. I guess YOU will all be my accountability.

She doesn't know it, but my blog buddie and friend, Julie, has inspired me in choosing my goal. My goal is to become a runner.

She recently decided to train for a half marathon. The thought of running can actually almost put the taste of blood in my mouth. I'm not a runner! In high school, when I was in WAY better shape than I am now, I had to run the mile in PE. It took me like 8 minutes and when I was done I could literally taste blood. I HATE RUNNING. BUT.....I've always looked at the people who do it and thought "WOW!" (I also think, "they are crazy!")

So why choose running as my goal? Well, I figure that if I can follow through with doing something I didn't start out being passionate about, just think what I could do with something I am passionate about. Not to mention the fact that it will make me healthier and bring my body into a better physical state than it is now!! Who doesn't want that?

So I downloaded this 6 month program for a beginning runner. It tells me what to do day by day, week by week. It's not training for a 5k run, or a half marathon, or anything like that. It's just about conditioning my body to become a runner.

So that's my goal. I'm going to follow through with this 6 month program.


The first day of it I am suppose to walk for 20 minutes. By the last day I will be able to run for 45 minutes straight. I've always wondered what runners mean when they use the expression "runner's high". Maybe I'll find out.

Here is one way YOU can help me. Since I've never done this before, and I only took about 15 minutes to reasearch the beginning running thing I could use some advice. If you know of a program for beginning runners that you think I should look at let me know. I'm not married to the one I found. I just figured it was a good place to start. But maybe one of YOU has already gone on this journey and could point me in the right direction.

Well. There it is. It's out there. Now I've got to actually get my butt in gear and GO DO IT!.....I can taste the blood already!

4 comments:

  1. I wish I could be supportive, but that's just dumb! Okay, it's not dumb, it's just that I hate running as much as you do. Good luck. Charles tried to start running and it hurt his knees too bad. Hopefully, in your old age you can take all the pounding. Actually, I started running years ago, for a while, and it wasn't that bad. Remember when we were at Uncle Barry's for something and I actually went running there. Good luck. If you forget about it in a month, I won't blame you.

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  2. Shannon, you are awesome! you can totally do this. Let's run a 5K together somewhere in your journey. And truly THERE IS a runner's high and it is quite addicting...as soon as you hit it. Maybe we could run on treadmills side by side...you are competitive so we would push each other...that is when you'll hit the runner's high. So, you've got me motivated with the weightloss thing so I'll keep you accountable on the running if you keep me accountable on the diet!! YUMMM.....blood!

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  3. Wow, I'm proud of you for being so transparent and real about this in your blog. I think Paul is wishing I would be able to switch hobbies right now so that all the chickens would leave...bummer for him I don't change my mind that quickly... :) You can totally do this running thing, just stick with it, have someone (sounds like Julie will be that someone maybe?) keep you going and you'll be so happy in the end to have seen it all the way through. And like you said, who wouldn't want a runners body? night...
    Kel

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  4. Shannon,
    I received a forward to this blog from a friend of a friend to pray for Luke, which I will, but I also noticed your running blog because i am about to run my first marathon. I have never thought of myself as a runner and used to detest it; I even was convinced I had exercise-induced asthma when I would attempt to run in college. The best advice I would give you would be to sign up for a 5k that is a month or two away, even if you aren't sure if you can run the whole thing. When I ran my first 5k, I couldn't even run quite 3 miles by the time of the race day and just decided I'd run as much of it as I could and walk the rest. Well, when I got to the point in the race at which I would normally start walking, I realized that I could see the finish line and that everyone at the finish line could see me. Pride/ego/whatever kicked in and I finished the whole thing running! Signing up for a 5k will provide some motivation in training, and the experience of having people watch and cheer for you will be huge in your ability to run further than you ever thought you could. Good luck!

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