Getting ready for my 5K on Saturday...

I didn't run on Tuesday, but I ran yesterday and today. I can't run outside right now because it's been below freezing outside in the mornings. Go figure! Florida??!! So I'm having to resort to the treadmill. You know, I think that's my problem. I really hate the treadmill. It doesn't feel like exercise. It feels like slow death.

Both days, I only ran for a half hour and then walked for a half hour. Still burned over a thousand calories each day, too. Woot!

But I think the reason I'm not able to run for an hour like I used to is because of my hatred for running on a treadmill. I think it's more of a mental block for me.

Yesterday I started out saying to myself, "okay, there's no way I can do this for an hour... I'll shoot for 45 minutes." ... Then 15 minutes later, I'm saying "oh my goodness, there's no way I can do this for another half hour, ugh!" ... Then like 5 minutes later, I'm about do die and know there's no way on God's green Earth that I'll be able to make it 45 minutes. So I negotiated with myself to run for only a half hour.

I did the same thing today except the negotiations started about 5 minutes into my run. But the weird thing was that while I was arguing and negotiating with myself, I noticed I wasn't getting tired. I truly think my body would have allowed me to run the full half hour.

There's just something about running in place. I feel like a hamster on a wheel.

I have the treadmill between the living room and dining room and the scenery is so boring. There's nothing particularly pretty out any of my windows for me to look out of. And I don't want to watch TV. I'd have to move the treadmill into the family room to watch TV because I don't want to have to move any of the other TVs into the living room. Besides, I really love listening to my iPod while I'm walking.

I was listening to my pastor yesterday morning. I missed the sermon week before last and was just getting caught up on it. It was really good. He told a story at the end of the sermon about how he had been invited to participate in the inaugural Church service, the one that Obama went to just before he was inaugurated. And how he sat next to Mohamad Ali and had to help him (with Ali's wife on the other side) stand. The story was so poignant because of how he'd come to the Lord. It was on the day that Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. Here's a link to it if you want to watch it.

Then this morning I was listening to This American Life and it was an episode from the week before Obama was inaugurated so he was going across the country listening to what everyone had to say about this momentous occasion. And would you believe one of the people he interviews was my pastor? What a coincidence, huh?! (I'd give you a link to that podcast, but it's no longer available online for free.) He was on there because he was the one who prayed at the event where Obama was officially nominated by his party (can't remember what that was called) and they were talking about the similarities between him and Rick Warren who prayed at the inauguration.

But anyway... The good news is that I don't think I'll have any problems running the 5K on Saturday. On Monday, I was afraid I was totally out of shape and there was no way I could do the 5k, but now, I know I can make it. I just hope the weather cooperates. It's been so cold lately. Weather.com says its supposed to be sunny and 45 Saturday morning. That should be fine. I've run plenty of times when it was 45 degrees. No problem at all.

I'm weighing in tomorrow morning (Friday) rather than Saturday morning because of the 5K. So I'm going to be one day short so I know I'm not going to lose very much, if anything. I was so hoping to lose a whole pound this week. I just don't think its gonna happen. I might be able to squeak out a smaller loss though. I sure hope so. Any loss would be tremendous at this point! I just want a loss two weeks in a row!

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