Still, despite the temps being about 9 degrees and with poor sidewalk conditions, the inaugural walk of the Fleet Feet No Boundaries 5K training started yesterday evening! It wasn't anything strenuous, though of course the temps and the piled-up snow on the poorly maintained sidewalks made even a straight 30-minute walk more challenging than it would have been. I'm still a little skeptical about how on earth I will be able to do any sort of running on that kind of terrain come the next meeting on Saturday, but surely I am not the only one. We'll all do what we can – that's all we can do!
In the meantime, I have decided to continue my own Couch to 5K training as a supplement. I am very proud to say that I conquered the dreaded W5D3, which means that you get a nice 5 minute warm up and cool down, but the remaining 20 minutes is all running, baby! Yesterday on my lunch break at work I hadn't really planned to do it, but decided what the heck? I knew that I could do 10 minutes of running fairly easily already, so why not just get the psychological barrier out of the way?
I am always shepherded along in my workouts by music. Just over the long weekend my partner introduced me to the amazing Jeff Buckley, who sadly died at age 30 in 1997, just as he was working on his second album. He drown accidentally in the Mississippi River in Nashville, where he was happily settling in. Ultimately, I decided to dedicate my effort to Jeff by listening to his one "official" album, Grace, and it really motivated me. The 20 minutes seemed to pass by almost effortlessly. Almost. So yeah. Very proud of that, even if probably most people could walk circles around my so-called running.
In addition, I am working on, slowly but surely, building my own personal yoga practice. I really enjoy attending classes, but for the way the weather has been it's admittedly harder to get myself out again in the evening to go to the gym. So I've been doing research about how to get set up at home, and seeking out various free resources for yoga instruction (and considering paid online video stuff as well). At the same time, I realize that there are poses and flow that I am remembering from the in-person classes, and favorite poses and ones I want to work on... and after my run yesterday I took a few minutes to do a little bit of that. Let me tell you, even a little bit here and there is just wonderful! A 5-minute savasana in the middle of the work day (and maybe with some headphones on listening to some appropriate music, or just left to one's own thoughts) is pure heaven, let me tell you. I will say this a million times how much appreciation I have for the basement space at work that allows me to do these things in private, with no interruptions. HEAVEN. A haven.
At home, I have practiced yoga in our sunroom, which has recently come together as a little personal library and relaxing space, but it feels a little cramped to me. I'm thinking about repurposing part of our upstairs area, which currently serves as storage space only, as a place for yoga and meditation. It wouldn't take much, just some cleaning and tidying up. I'm looking forward to doing that, hopefully in the next week or two.
All these changes I am making – they have been very gradual, but very effective over time. I've been happy with the slow progress I am making, and best of all I'm truly feeling good in my skin for perhaps the first time ever.
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