Race Week

It is official!!!  I have my number for the 5K on Saturday!  I am so excited!!!!!  I have never done anything like this in my life and I can't believe I am doing it now.  What a difference a few months make.  If someone had told me last year that I would be in a 5K walk, I would have thought they were joking.  I feel amazing and nervous.
My last post, I was pretty down in the dumps.  Unfortunately, I stayed down for a few weeks.  But I never stopped working out.  I grumbled at my scale and seriously thought it was conspiring  against me...lol.  Working out felt like a horrible chore, and let me tell ya, one day at the gym, I actually considered just walking out.  But I didn't.  I stayed and finished my work out.  That 45 minutes felt like a life time and all up hill.
Last night, I reluctantly went to the gym.  I was dreading it because of the work out I had to do.  I am currently zone training.  Zone training is working between 3 target heart rate zones.  This helps burn body fat more efficiently and conditions  your heart muscle ie, making it stronger.  Everyone has different zones they need to work in.  I found my out by doing an assessment with my personal trainer, Stefanie. Zone 1 ranges from 112-121, Zone 2 ranges from 122-140, Zone 3 ranges from 141-158. As you guessed, each zone is more difficult. That being said, my work out last night was 45 minutes in Zone 3, which includes a 5 min warm up and a 5 min cool down.  Because I have been doing Zone training for 5 weeks now, I have to work harder to get my HR in the appropriate zone.  When I first started, I was huffing and puffing in zone 2.  Now, Zone 3 is starting to get a bit easier.  I can pretty much sail through Zone 2 now, no problem.  I was very intimated by the fact that my entire work out was in Zone 3.  Normally, my workouts work between zones.  A typical zone workout that I have done is: Zone 1, 2 mins, Zone 2, 2 mins, Zone 3, 1 min. Then I repeat that for the duration of the workout, maybe 7 times.  So yes, I was intimidated.  For me to hit Zone 3 on the treadmill, I have to be walking about 3.5 MPG with an incline of about 3.5%.  I didn't want to do that for 45 minutes.  So I worked on the elliptical.  Now, the elliptical and I are not really friends.  It usually kicks my butt pretty fast.  I am always in Zone 3 when I work out on that machine.  I figured last night was the perfect night to give it a whirl, no pun intended.  About 10 minutes into my work out, I thought I was gonna die.  That 45 minutes went by so slow.  Almost as slow as Lars in the morning!  When I finished my work out, I felt amazing!  I DID IT!  I couldn't believe it!  All those lunges, reverse lunges and wall squats that Laurie and Stefanie had made me do, were paying off!  I was on such a natural high last, it was amazing. I couldn't wait to tell Laurie today.  She was proud of me! :-)
So now, I am getting very pumped up about the 5K on Saturday.  It is scary ans exciting and I am so looking forward to it!