Exercise

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate running? I know hate is a strong word, but it's appropriate for my emotion about running. This morning, I got the resolve to get back into the running game since the scale is pretty stuck right now. Before Jake and I got married, I was running 2-3 miles 4 or 5 times a week and was the smallest I've been since Junior High so if it worked then, it's gotta work now, right?

Here are my top 10 reasons for hating running in El Paso:

1. Altitude - Can you say burn lungs burn?
2. Wind - Chicago's got nothing on El Paso.
3. Out of shape - My body isn't what it used to be prior to having 2 babies!
4. Boredom - You're not allowed to run with headphones on Fort Bliss.
5. Early Morning - The only time to go alone is between 7:30 and 8:30 while Jake's home between PT and Class.
6. Jelly legs - It's been 2 hours since I got back and my legs are still attempting to recover.
7. Stamina - It takes me forever to work up to where I feel like I have the stamina to run very long without having to take a little bit of a walk.
8. In the open - There's no hiding your out of shapeness when you pass other runners or neighbors out and about and you're breathing like you're about to go into Cardiac Arrest and you look like you're about to die!
9. Mental Midget - I am queen of the Mental Midgets. Once I feel pain, I just want to quit. I don't have the mental ability to psych myself up and push through for very long.
10. Flashbacks - In 2003, I ran the Greenville Downtown 5K with Jake, sort of. We were both there, but he was about 10 minutes in front of me. As I made the turn onto Main Street, there was a huge hill that got the best of me and I had to stop on the side of the road, with runners passing me by - one of them the CFO of Datastream, my place of employment at the time - so that I could throw up! I vowed to never have to do that again.

Speaking of 5Ks, Bailey ran one of his own yesterday. We were going for a little family walk yesterday afternoon and instead of riding in his car and having Jake push him the whole way, he decided to push his Tonka dump truck. We walked about a mile or so and he pushed that thing the entire way. We could tell when he was finally getting tired because he would stop and take little breaks and wait for us. We were also making him pick it up and put it back on the sidewalk after we crossed the street so he was straining to do that, too. When were about to turn the corner toward our house, Jake thought he would jog and see if Bailey would push it a little faster. Instead of running with the dump truck, he would just leave it in the middle of the street and take off running toward Jake. We'd make him go back and get his truck and then do the same thing all over again. We just laughed at him. He was quite winded by the time we got back to the house. One woman even asked us if we were trying to tire him out! He was glad when we got home and I offered him a drink! Milk never tasted so good, I'm sure.