Three Birds with One Stone

It's four months into the new year and so far I've been good about one of my resolutions.  I have managed to make something every month even though some of the things have been small.  It's still progress, right?  Anyway, my mom's work hosts a 5K run every year and in the past I have helped out with the festivities leading up to the run but never actually participated.  I never ever would have considered doing it before college.  I was content to be in marching band and eat whatever I wanted before I realized the mechanics of diet and exercise.  (See: Freshmen 20 within first month of college.)

So recently I'm looking up local races because I had decided that I was going to find a race and train for it.  Then I find the website for the one at home and it clicked.  Why haven't I thought of this before?  Not only do I know the people organizing it, but I get to have family and friends cheering me on while I run through the pretty residential area.  Giraffe is doing it too so that'll be nice even though I will totally be eating his dust as he laps me over and over again.  

I have been training for a few months now running on a treadmill regularly, but that ceased when I went to Europe for a week and came back with my knee giving me fits.  However, we did a whole lot of walking around so at least it was some sense of physical activity daily.  Unfortunately, I was in a lot of pain by the time we left and stayed away from the treadmill for over a week.

So that brings us to a couple of days ago while I was talking to Victoria about needing to find the motivation to start training again for the race, which is two weeks from this Saturday.  I started out small again by doing strength training for 10 minutes then ran for 15 minutes and walked for 20.  My quads are still sore, but I actually missed that feeling.  I plan to do some more running this weekend, possibly running outside for a change if the weather's nice.  Giraffe found a greenway that is about the length of the race so we might head out there to get some "real" training since it will be outdoors and not controlled by a treadmill belt.

In preparation for the race, I have decided on conducting an experiment alongside the race.  I plan to take on another New Year's resolution by not eating out for 2 weeks.  This has an exception, though: being invited out by a third party will not penalize me.  This has to be the everyday lunch and dinner struggle that I face.  This experiment, if all goes well, will be beneficial because:

1. I can put the right things into my body while training for the race.
2. Save some money and see what my account is like since most of my spending is eating out.
3. Learn to cook more freely and fearlessly.
4. I will lose some weight while training, potentially checking off another resolution on the list (lose 5 lbs).

There will be an ultimate reward for completely all this, even though the list above is more than enough to be rewarding.  After the race and I drive back to resume normal life again, I plan on getting a message at my favorite spa place.   Just thinking about all those Aveda products are putting me in a coma.