My Latest Timed Mile Run

I posted earlier about a really easy way to predict the kind of health you will have in your later years.  All you have to do is do a mile run and look at the time you did it in.  So, I thought I was in fairly great shape because I take my dog on runs, am not seriously overweight and can still do the splits.   But my time earlier this summer wasn't great, that's for sure.  So I vowed to do something about it.  I did, until I started back to work at the high school and since then I've been absolutely horrible about keeping up my cardio.  But thanks to Alice, my Alternative HS's Physical Education Teacher (and my well-respected friend), I decided to do a timed run again with her students.  She has started making her own students accountable for their cardiovascular health by doing several timed runs during the school year and measuring improvement!
    Thursday morning was a crisp fall morning as we made our way out to the river trail, which is adjacent to our small school.  I had made one discovery since my earlier timed run.  If I stop, it's really hard to start back up again.  So I promised myself I wouldn't stop, no matter what.  If I was doing the old-lady two-step shuffle by the time I was through, so be it, I wasn't going to stop. 
     Alice's whistle blew, and off I went, along with about 25 other students.  It was so funny.  Everyone blew by me. I just knew that I was going to be so humiliated and come in dead last.  Oh well, this wasn't to impress anyone.  I just wanted to see if I could beat my last time.  Darn, now I was regretting my negligence about working out these past 3 weeks.  I just kept telling myself, "don't stop, don't stop, whatever you do.  You've been through childbirth, nothing can top that, you're a strong woman...."  
    It wasn't long before I noticed that some of the kids were walking and that I was passing them!  I also noticed that when they saw that I was passing them, they started back up.  I guess it WOULD be the ultimate humiliation to have someone as old as their mom or even older, passing them up.  And so we kept going. I reached the halfway point, took the candy from the lady, to prove that I had indeed reached the halfway point, and started back.  I passed more winded students up, and then I saw the finish line.  I had enough in me to speed up as I crossed.  
    When it was all said and done, I increased my original time by over a minute!  I'm super excited and it did a lot for my motivation.  This morning I took my dog out for a trail run/walk and enjoyed it immensely!  Have a wonderful fall!  You can do it too!

A Great Place To Run and Walk!

I have a little place that I go when I take my dog for an early morning run/walk.

It's very quiet, it's very beautiful and we both love it.  I've always loved to hike, bike and run--just never all at the same time.  I'm either on a hiking kick, a biking phase or a running stage.  For a long time, I swore I'd never run again.  I preferred the less jolting activities of hiking and biking. But my weight has given me fits lately. I need to do something.  I can't cheat when I run.

 I've started out walking for 5 minutes and running for 5 minutes for an hour.  But this is the place my dog and I go.  No one bothers us, no prying eyes here at 6:30 am.  Just me, my dog, the road and an occasional lake bird.  Yes, we have a beautiful backdrop! 

Evee is a real motivator.  She runs like the wind, and loves to chase birds in flight, ducks in the water (yes, she loves to swim) or, unfortunately bikers, cars and runners.  Of course, she always comes back to see that I'm doing OK and she tries to get me going even faster by circling behind me, ever herding.  That's why I need to have her out early in the morning before anyone comes out.  I can't enjoy a walk where I have a dog tugging on a leash wanting to aggressively herd anything that comes by.  But it's good for me as well to rise early.  Getting up in the morning and exercising really kick starts my day!
Hugs,

Helena