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!
Congrats, OrchidsDream. You are doing so amazing. I am at the beginning of this healthy changing process and need to see the progress that every exercise, every weigh-in, every run, every race, gets you and I and everybody on this journey to know and relate to . This helps motivate us all. Good luck on the race and don't stop, it's only a matter of time before all your goals are met.
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