Just call me Stella, cause I'm getting my groove back.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons - Saurabh_B

I used to love working out. I was a big fan of weight lifting and kickboxing and was in pretty good shape prior to the Crohn's diagnosis. When I started to really get sick, I remember struggling through my kickboxing workouts but sticking to it anyway. Then after diagnosis the medication I had to take really knocked me down. I gained a bunch of weight from the steroids and lost a bunch of my strength. I thought steroids were supposed to help with that?? Oh wait, wrong steroids. After I came off of all the meds in the winter of 09 I'd get in a workout here and there but never quite found my motivation again. The workouts felt great and I knew I could rebuild my old strength easily, I just didn't do it. I read a ton of healthy lifestyle blogs and saw all these girls getting in their runs and their body pump classes and yoga and spinning and I kept thinking, girl you've got to get it together! We had a Biggest Loser challenge earlier this year at work and I started out great with it but quickly slid backwards.

Then I met B and he's big into working out. Sometimes you just need someone there to give you that kick in the butt to get you going. He really wanted us to workout together and I was all for it, yet he'd get up in the morning and say "I'm going to the gym, you coming?" And I'd roll right back over and go to sleep. I've always been more of an evening person for workouts anyway and I did start joining him on his after work workouts. We'd do the standard workout that I've been doing for over 10 years, 20-30 minutes of the elliptical and then weight lifting. I was into it, and got some good workouts in, but it was the same old boring thing.

When he told me that he wanted to get back into running and asked if I wanted to run with him my first reaction was Hell Freakin NO! I hate running. I've never been a runner. My youth soccer days came flashing back, ace bandage on the knee that never worked properly, dragging my butt up and down that field, feeling like I was going to die. I have always hated running! Then we went to New Balance to get him a decent pair of running sneakers and the sales guy told us that they are sponsoring a 5K in September and we should go. "We." Ha. I'm not buying sneakers my friend. You can keep your 5K. I don't want any part of that insanity.

But then I started thinking, it's only 3.2 miles. If the contestants of the Biggest Loser can run a marathon then I can certainly get through 3.2 miles. And I definitely could use a change of scenery when it comes to my workouts. I tell B that I wanted to do it. Let's run. I can do this! He says, ok, let's go to the gym, we're going to run there. Well, let's just say that first run didn't go so well. I need a different approach than just going outside and hitting the pavement until I die. In the back of my mind I had been thinking of the Couch to 5K program. Later that week I downloaded the training calendar and set off on week one. Last night I finished week one. I mapped it out on gmaps and I'm doing just over 2 miles in 25 minutes. Clearly that's not fast at all but if I can get through that in week one, I have no doubt that by week nine I'll be doing great. The 5K is September 25th. That will be week 10. I can totally do this!!