I'm Going To Be A Rugged Maniac

Greetings from the Chicago O’Hare Airport!!!

This is how you blog while in Child's Pose...

I’m currently en route to San Francisco for a week of exploring, and have some layover time to kill. Lucky you!

Now where did we leave off? Last week, I challenged myself to a week of Paleo (three cheats), dragging booty to the gym for 5 straight days, and putting up two additional posts. Well, the week is over, and all said and done, I’ll give myself a B. Nutritionally, I totally owned it, and only indulged in everything in sight not-so-good food twice. I went to the gym 5 days total, just not in a row (I took a day off because every joint in my body ached last Saturday), and I only got one of two posts up.

I do have some cool news, though! Thanks to my new kicks and running plan, I hit a personal best on Friday! I ran one mile straight, walked 90 seconds, ran another mile straight, walked 2 minutes, then ran 0.5 miles, and walked another 0.25. All and all, 3.1 miles—or a treadmill 5K (no, I’m not going to tell you my turtle-pace time…just let me have my moment on top of the world. The view is so great.).  Now, I realize that this mileage is really eye-roll worthy, but I honestly don’t think I have ever run a mile non-stop before. Let alone doing that twice. So, at the very least, I know my endurance is improving!

Now, I just have to do it back to back to back without all the walking. And I might as well do it with a 25-pound weight lifted above my head, or balanced on one foot for meters on end, or hoofing up a huge incline begging for mercy…

Why so, you ask?

Because I’m entered in a 5-K obstacle course race at the end of September.

Oh yeah.

Realistically, about 6 weeks ago now, a friend of mine messaged me after reading a post about my endeavors to break into running. She has done a number of mud runs for fun-zies, and she thought I might enjoy the masochism   beer at the end   experience. Never one to shy away from torture and challenge, I accepted and registered. The upside is that I’ll be doing my inaugural running race a the posse of similar-minded hooligans who I call friends. Five of us will be racing in the Rugged Maniac on September 29. We’ll be racing for fun, rather than time, but I think it will pose an interesting challenge nonetheless. Basically, it’s a 5K on a motocross course with 20 obstacles between you and the beer  finish line. The obstacles are largely mud and/or water related, so in addition to getting a good butt-kicking, it’s just a great excuse to get really gross like when you were kids and not have to explain yourself. Sign me up.

As this is now a mere 4 weeks away, I’ve launched myself back into my running plan. Now that I know I am capable of running a mile non-stop, walking a little, and then doing it again, my next step is to increase distance slowly without the walk breaks. I’m hoping I can get to 2-1.5 mile chunks within the next two weeks. My strength training card has also been shifted almost exclusively to multiple muscle exercises without machines so that I can adapt to lifting and moving my own weight. Hopefully this will help me be more gazelle-like whilst I attempt to climb walls, army crawl in the dirt, and bob-and-weave through water obstacles (though I’m more convinced it will just help me stay alive whilst I flail through everything else). 

So that is something fun to look forward to and prepare for in the coming weeks!

Wanna know what else is fun?! Running to catch your flight! Which is what I have to go do now! Workouts come in all forms, you know…

Happy weekend-ing!