Exercise Schmexercise!

First of all, I have to admit, I don't really like to exercise.  I do it mostly because I don't want pteradactyl arms when I wave good-bye and I don't want a saggy butt.  Rumor has it that I will live longer if I do some occasional exercise too.  Well, that being said, I exercise when the mood strikes and it has struck.  It might be the fact that I got on the scale yesterday morning, and saw that I had managed to get up to 148.6 pounds.  That is a net gain of 5.6 pounds in the last four weeks.  Boo!  Yesterday, I went back to low calorie eating and massive water drinking, and despite the fact that I ate 2 1/2 of the most delicious egg rolls I have ever had, I was down to 146.8 this morning.  So, back to exercise...

So, what do I do for exercise, you ask?  I run sometimes.  No, not because I'm being chased by a ferocious dog (although that has always been my most compelling reason to consider running), but because it's good for me.  Do I love to run?  Nope.  Do I like it?  Sometimes.  Sometimes before I run, I try to come up with many excuses not to.  For example:  it's too hot, too cold, too far, nowhere to run, I have no friends to run with, too many friends want to run with me (and they are faster and go farther), I didn't eat a good pre-run meal, I ate too much, I'm not a good runner, and the list goes on.  I really like the "idea" of running, but I have a hard time getting motivated to do it.  The good news is that once I get out there and put in a couple of miles (which is about all I can do), I feel great!  I feel motivated to do it again.  And this poster sums up how I feel afterward......because I have often been the one on the couch!

One of my biggest motivators is running in an organized event, for which I have paid good American dollars!  I hate wasting money, and I feel obligated to run when I pay for a race.  I've done a few races/runs and had the idea of doing one a month.  Then I remembered that I live in a place that has a climate similar to Hades.  I realize that I can go to cooler climates, but I can't see traveling many hours and paying lots of dollars to run a 5K elsewhere, so the summer months have been mostly run-less.  This might be called being cheap and lazy, but I did get to the fitness room at school a few times. I did do the super fun Color Run in San Francisco with the Fish and my good friend Val in July!  We froze our tushies off since it took place at Candlestick Park, which is notorious for being cold and windy.  It was both of those.  Nice change from Hades though.   If you haven't heard about these shenanigans, it is a 5K run, where at various locations on the course, they pelt you with colored cornstarch.  You leave there covered in many neon colors!  Well worth the money paid.  When I was finished, I didn't feel as though I had run just over three miles.  Here are a few photos from the run: 

Outfits designed for warmth & color!  

Purple cows ready to run!

Color cloud!

Done!! 

Me & the Fish!

I think after some "training" on my part, our next run will be the Susan Komen 5K run to benefit breast cancer.  It's in October and gives me a few weeks to get my running legs back in shape.    Fish has her running legs in great shape because of volleyball.  Guess I have some catching up to do!  

Bottom line is training begins today.  I need to work out, whether I run, walk, or do something else, I need to get started again!  Tomorrow morning, back to core exercises.  No more snooze button.  I'll report tomorrow as to how it went.