I want to run...what's wrong with me? 3/26/08

What an interesting past few days. It's the typical Atlanta early spring weather. Freezing temperatures in the morning and mid 70's in the afternoon. It's made it very interesting at boot camp this week. By the way, this is our last week of the March session of boot camp. I will be completing my fourth month of boot camp and have made some incredible improvements from when I first started. I'm hoping to break an 8:00 minute mile this Friday during our final PT test.

We did the long run around Atlantic Station yesterday morning. We ran a distance right at 4 miles. My legs were aching when we got done. I was really in pain. I think it was due to a lack of stretching after working out over the weekend. Upon finishing the long run, I gave my legs a good and long stretch; they felt fine and haven't bothered me since. I was real proud of some of my fellow boot campers. This was the first time that some of them had run this distance. Everyone did great! They've all made great strides during this month of boot camp. I hope they will keep up the good work and return next month for another session.

I had a strange thing happen to me over the weekend. I was sitting around on Friday evening watching television. I had missed boot camp that morning, and I really needed to get some exercise on Friday. About 7:00, I got up off the sofa and went and ran 2 laps around Memorial Park. I don't know what happened to me! I just had the urge to go out and get some exercise. Anyways, I felt great afterwards and really enjoyed the jog.

I decided to not exercise on Saturday due to the fact that I had to travel out of town for Easter and spend time with my family. I tried my best to watch what I ate over the weekend, but it's really hard turning down all of that good cooking that you usually get with an after-church Easter dinner. I returned to Atlanta on Sunday afternoon and found myself in the same situation that I was in on Friday. I was sitting around the house and had not exercised that day. So, once again, I got up and went and ran 2 laps around Memorial Park.

What is wrong with me? Why am I getting up off a very comfortable sofa to go run 3.5 miles? Have I lost my mind? Actually, nothing is wrong with me. Exercise and eating right are becoming a regularity in my everyday life. I don't feel right if I don't exercise or eat something I shouldn't. It's amazing what is happening to me! I guess these things are becoming habits of mine that my body has slowly gotten used to over the past several months. I never expected any of this stuff to become habitual, but, obviously, I was wrong. Both my body and my mindset are changing due to boot camp. I guess it's just easier to see the results in my body as opposed to the changes inside my head...

I'll keep you posted on how I do this Friday with my mile time. I'm also planning to run in the Sprint for Cancer race on April 20th. It is being held at Atlantic Station and both a 5K and 10K are available to participate in. Check out http://www.sprintforcancer.com/ for details. I'm planning to run my second 10K at this race, and several of my boot camp compadres will be running their first 5K. You should come out and join us...