A Heart Healthy Valentine's Day

I’m still here for those of you who still stop by to check for signs of life. I’ve just not had much of interest to write about lately. The sex drive has once again taken a dive leaving me without any hot stories to relate…real or fantasy. To that end Jay and I have an appointment this week for a consult regarding a vasectomy for him. Our hope is to schedule it as soon as possible after the consult.

This past Valentine’s weekend was a very nice one on several fronts. It began with me running my first 5K of which I am very proud. I’ve never been terribly big on exercise. I’ve always found it tedious and boring only doing it sporadically usually only when I was dieting. I’m very much a girly girl and never did any sports as a child or teenager. I took up running about a year and a half ago just to see what it would be like. I had several friends at work who were constantly talking about how great it was, I passed my neighbor jogging by each morning as I was bored to tears on my guilt induced, “this is good for me" walks, until one day I decided to start jogging and see what happened. The first time I tried it I doubt I even made it half a mile before I had to stop gasping for air like an asthmatic, bent over, and sweating buckets. It put into perspective just how out of shape I was. I walked the remainder of my neighborhood that day.

But there was something about it that drew me to it. I kept getting up each morning, and I kept going out to run. It was so much more interesting and exhilarating than walking. I was very self conscious for the first few months, glad it was dark early in the mornings so no one could really see me that well when they passed by. Over time, as my distance and stamina increased, I grew more and more confident until I was actually going out to run on Saturday mornings in the light of day when people could see me as they passed by because it just felt so good, and I had to do it.

I kept it up as the months passed, but felt like I needed more of a purpose to my running. I had begun to go out there and just go through the motions. I stopped pushing myself to increase my mileage. I reached the point where I could do 2.5 miles with relative ease and stopped trying to push myself any further which had been the thing that motivated me to get out there the most in the first place. It was a game I played with myself…how much further can I go today, each extra half mile or mile feeling like such a victory.

I had had the itch to participate in a real race for a while, but didn’t have the guts to do it all alone until I found a friend at work who also wanted to enter a real race, and also didn’t want to do it alone. So a pact was born. We promised each other we would enter our first race together which happened to be this Valentine’s Day.

We made our commitment to each other in November, and I immediately felt a renewed sense of purpose. I began to push myself to go further and faster. I began to actually record and track my running statistics. By the time we reached the race this weekend I had increased my mileage to 3.5 miles and had improved my time from about a 9.3 minute mile to about an 8.6 minute mile.

There was just one catch which I discovered when my friend and I ran together for the first time a week before the race. She was significantly slower than me! I had feared she would be much faster as she is probably a good 30 lbs thinner than me. However, I found myself having to go at what felt like a snail’s pace to me to stay with her as her heart monitor beeped incessantly at her. My monitor beeps at me too, but I mostly just ignore it, glancing down every now and then to make sure I am not at heart attack level…LOL!! She, however, lives by her monitor never allowing herself to go outside her prescribed zone, thus she is not so speedy.

So a decision had to be made…try my best at my first race and see what kind of time I could bring in, or forgo the competition aspect and stay with my friend. I chose the later as it was the very first time either of us had done this, and I probably would not have had the courage to do it alone. We came in at a respectable 34:05.

I have however, caught the fever. I had an awesome time. I felt so proud of myself…athlete is a word I would NEVER use to describe myself, but there I was with several hundred other athletes in varying degrees of fitness actually running a race. I want to do it again!! My next goal is a 10 K which I never imagined I’d be capable of when I first started this venture. However, I am pleased to report I did 4 miles yesterday morning, and feel quite certain I could struggle through a 10 K right now. However me, being me, I don’t dare sign up for one until I know for certain I can run 6 miles without keeling over and making a fool of myself!! So, I’ve a couple more 5 K’s in the works until I can muster the courage to meet the next milestone. Rest assured I’ll be singing my own praises again when I do it!

Oh, and for those of you waiting for sex to crop up in this post, I say, be patient. Jay and I had a very hot and kinky Valentine evening which I will be narrating for you in the next post.