I woke up this morning and found this on the table....
My mother has committed herself to training to walk a 5k!
You have to understand why this is exciting for me. Back when I was a senior in high school, many moons ago, my mother had a massive stroke. It left her without feeling on the entire right side of her body. She went through intense rehabilitation in order to be able to speak and walk again. Since that time, she has had another 3-4 minor strokes, each which have taken their toll on her body. Looking at her, you wouldn't be able to tell that she has difficulty with her right side, but if you go up and tap her on the right shoulder from behind, she will not respond because she can't feel anything.
Rather understandably, she's been depressed about not being able to do much of anything. She doesn't go to the gym because she has difficulty walk/running on the treadmill as the belt makes it onerous for her to keep one foot in front of the other. She also has a hard time using the elliptical or the bike or the same reason: her right leg just cannot keep up with her left leg. I've often told her she should go down to the track and walk but you can tell she's worried about what will happen to her legs. Even the doctor has told her that exercise will help strengthen her legs (and make her feel less depressed, healthier, lose weight, etc) but sometimes it's hard to convince someone to do something good for themselves. (You can lead a horse to water, right?)
Recently, a friend helped motivate her to do Weight Watcher's together and now they are going to train to walk a 5k together as well! They are planning on going down to the local track every day at 4pm and walking laps. (The track should be fine for her because the ground won't be moving underneath her feet like on a treadmill.) I like to believe that my recent running addiction and healthy lifestyle changes have played a part in my mother's choice to start walking, but even if they haven't I am SO proud of her. This is a big undertaking for someone who is, to put it bluntly, scared of working out because she doesn't want to hurt herself or embarrass herself and I, honestly, couldn't be happier for her!
In other news, I was feeling rather stiff/sore today but I decided to do a short 2 mile run just to keep my body warmed up. I set out at an easy pace, enjoying the slightly warmer weather, cursing that I forgot to grab my sunglasses as I had to squint the whole way, but I ran the first mile in 12:46. YAY ME! As I turned around to return home, however, my thigh muscle started tightening so I had to stop and stretch it out on the side of the road. (That's perfectly safe, right? Oy.)
I tried Chelsea's pigtail and bandana method on my run today. I'm actually kind of proud that I managed to match my bandana to my tech shirt- Thanks Walmart!
(Don't I look kind of bad-ass? If only I had remembered my sunglasses, I would be totally BA!)
Running into the wind, I realized that I may have to pin my bandana on with a few bobby pins because it blew off my head again. When I stopped to stretch, I put my bandana back on and it was fine the rest of the way back, but the wind was at my back this time. I will keep working on it I suppose. Tomorrow is Thursday, which means it is my cross training day. I intend on doing my Turbo Jam DVD as well as hitting the gym for arm and ab work. We will see how it goes as it is my first time doing this DVD.
Questions of the Day:
1. What is something that you are proud to have inspired (fitness-wise) in your life?
Getting my mom to train to walk a 5k is probably my greatest moment yet.
2. What is your favorite running outfit and why?
I love my running legging capri's with my shorts over them, my pink tank top and white tech shirt. I enjoy layers sometimes. Haven't figured out a running outfit for the warmer weather yet though.
