Operation Boot Camp - Day 24

July 23

Operation Boot Camp - Day 24

Three-mile run today. I might have been a little shy of three miles, but it was plenty long enough for me. Today I'm writing two versions of this blog, because I'm kind of split on how I feel about it.

I'll start with the good.

Wow! I just finished a 3-mile jog. Yes, I had to stop and walk about a half dozen times and walk out the pain in my side, but I did it! I went fifteen full minutes before I had to slow down and walk. I timed myself and I did it in 29:57. That's less than 30 minutes, which was my goal for today. The rest of the pack was pretty far ahead of me, but that's okay! Instructors Mark and Molly ran with me, and Mark did his best to keep me on pace and keep going.

Now do you want to hear how I really feel?

Today's class stunk for me. I am so incredibly slow. I'm not a runner! I was the only one in the whole class who had to stop and walk. We were allowed to bring our Ipods, but all of the music in mine was getting on my nerves. The trees were getting on my nerves. The hills were getting on my nerves. My shoelace that kept coming untied got on my nerves. We ran across a bridge and I wanted to stop and jump off of it. I felt horrible because Mark and Molly were having to jog so slowly to keep me on track that I doubt they got much of a workout at all. It took me almost thirty minutes to run less than three miles.

Thanks for letting me vent! Okay, there are two ways I can look at today's class. Either I can beat myself up for being so slow and out of shape, or I can be proud of myself for getting through the experience. There's no way I could have done this a month ago. I am looking forward to doing this run same time next month, and seeing how much faster I go. I had a bit of an epiphany on the drive back home: I have control issues. Today on the run I didn't have any idea how far I'd gone or how much farther I had to go before finishing. So, next month if we do this run again, I'll know, so I'll have a little more control over the situation. I know where the hard hills are. I'll know when there's only a mile left.

We only have two days left in this first month on my Lookin' Good in the Neighborhood challenge. Friday we take the PT test again to see how much we've accomplished in the last month. On day one I ran the mile in 10:57. I set my goal to run it on Friday in 6 minutes. What was I thinking? I'm realistic, that's not going to happen. But I am going to run it as fast as I can. If I've learned anything this month, it's that I don't accomplish anything if I don't push myself.

I want to give a big thanks and shout out to my carpool buddy Laura. Her 3-mile run time from last month (she's in her second month) was about 7 minutes shorter than she did it last month! Now those are some awesome results! Boot camp works.

The new Operation Boot Camp classes start MONDAY, so if you're interested, log on to http://www.operationbootcamp.com and sign up as soon as you can. As hard as this past month has been, I'm looking forward to seeing where I stand a month after finishing month two!

-- Paula Morrison

paula.morrison@news9.net