Athletic me, how I've missed you!

Tomorrow, March 21st 2007 will be one month since I quit smoking. OK, I cheated a few times the first few days, but still. Since I have quit smoking I have had this unbelievable urge to start running again. Alas, it is cold outside and I am a BIG baby when it comes to cold weather.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that I could run on campus at Alumni Arena. I could work out there too. I had been back in school for over two months and had however, not checked out the facilities. It was again the cold. Alumni Arena was not connected to the rest of the buildings and it meant going for a small hike outside. So yesterday, I finally made the trip.

Dear sweet baby Jesus! If ever I needed encouragement to work out! Why did it not occur to me earlier that workout facilities on a college campus would provide such...uh...hmm...a lovely environment? Haha, never before have I had such enthusiasm for a gym!

Anywho...I went there today to run the track. This was really regardless of the previous comments. I just wanted to start running again. When I was in High School, I was CRAZY athletic. It's not that I played a lot of sports, (just volleyball) but I was planning on joining the Air Force and I was obsessed with being in perfect shape. I would ride my bike from my house to school and run the track. Or, I would ride from my house to my grandmother's and swim laps in her pool. Sometimes I'd stop at school and then go to my grandmother's. The biking itself was 10 miles round-trip if I did both stops.

I reminisced about this with a friend the other day. I told her that I wanted to be "athletic-me" again. "We are 30 now," she reminded me. But I had decided when I turned 29 that I wasn't interested in "being" 30. Of course, I have a real habit of thinking that I can do anything...overestimating myself. In reality, those things are often not done as easily as I originally thought.

I wasn't sure of the distance of the track...I imagined a quarter mile. So my plan was to alternate running and walking laps eight times for a total of two miles. But realistically I knew I might not make it to one. Over the past few years I had occasionally gotten the urge to run. I'd start out running past a house or two and then reduce to jogging which quickly became walking. And then I'd turn around. Four or fives houses and I'd be out of breath. It was sad. But I was a smoker.

So there I was in my new workout clothes that I bought for the occasion. (Dork...yeah I know, lol!) Would I make it around the track without giving out? I stretched out, turned on the MP3 player, and started to run. I could do it! Not only that, I enjoyed it. I did complete eight laps but three running and five walking. Still, it was pretty good. I wanted to do more because I was SO excited. However, I didn't want to over-do it either. Right now I feel great! We'll see if I'm paralyzed tomorrow...haha! But it would appear that I am back, or at least on my way!