Tuesday, April 5, 2011

I joined a what?

This past week was a much better than the last.  I ran on Monday and Thursday, both times over two miles and both at moderately fast paces.  I even stretched AND did a warm up. That's pretty impressive if I do say so myself.  But could you blame me? The weather was beautiful! (except for Wednesday, it poured). I enjoyed just being outside.

On Friday I got to have a "bonus weekend" in Memphis because some friends of mine had to go there anyway, therefore I had a FREE RIDE to Collierville to see Cody. It was definitely a treat. But even on bonus weekends, I found a time to run a two-mile run. It was rather fun, only because it was a new location so it didn't seem to be as hard.

Something I've learned about myself though is that I much rather run as hard as I can for around two miles, then run a slow pace and get more distance in.  It's not necessarily that I'm in a time crunch, I just find myself speeding up the pace until the next thing I know I'm completely out of breath. The only rational reason I can think of is that in high school, cross country races were two miles.  Maybe my body refuses to do anything less? I should break it to it soon that we still have over 11 miles to go...

So now you're probably wondering what the heck the title of this post means.  Well first, a big storm blew in yesterday bringing a lot of wind, rain and cold.  Even though the sky cleared up, the wind and cold definitely stuck around, making me not want to run at all.  Instead I found an alternative, I joined a gym.  I used to never want to join one, because I didn't understand why I needed to pay to work out when I had perfectly good running shoes sitting in the closet.  But after much high praise for 10 Fitness from more than a few people, I took a shot at it. I ended up working out over an hour, and hopefully didn't look to stupid doing it.  I did a some free weights even! It's a great deal if you are looking for a good gym, but don't want to spend a lot of money.  There's no contract and $10 a month (or $20 if you get the premium) which is cheaper then anywhere else! Totally worth it. If you're in the LR area, you should join.

So now the task is to work out even more with the membership.  Don't worry though, I'm not abandoning my running.  I much rather run any day of the week, but now I don't have an excuse for bad weather days anymore.

My task for this week? Eating healthier. I'll let you know how it goes.
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One more note.  I know if you're reading this, you've probably already seen me advertise the WALK! for American Heart Association, but I'm going to use my blog to plug it again. There are walks all over the nation throughout the year, but the one I'm supporting is for Central Arkansas and is on April 16.  The goal for this area is $300,000.  I, along with a co-worker, am on a team together to try and raise $1,200.  It's a lot of money, but for a good cause. 

This is near and dear to my heart because my granddaddy, Bill Chumbley had heart disease.  He had multiple heart surgeries in his life that caused him to have a weak heart.  In 2008, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but with such a weak heart he went into cardiac arrest only two weeks after being diagnosed and passed away in March 2008 after being admitted to the hospital a month earlier.  He was such a great man and left a great legacy, that I wanted to do something in his name. My other grandfather, Charlie Delker, also has heart disease.  I'm so proud of him though, for living such a full life still! He up everyday, still working on multiple projects, it's hard to keep up with him.



My granddaddy and me in 1994.


So after all that-- if you are interested in donating to the AHA walk (it helps not just central Arkansas, but all over the nation) please click the link and donate. Also, if you have a story you'd like to share about someone in your family with heart disease, I'll post it on my blog. :)

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

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