Getting Started and Other Inconsequential Things

I initially began a Myspace profile to blog. I never thought that any of my family or anyone else I knew would ever see it. The Internet is a vast space with billions of sites and millions of people, right?? What I learned is that the Internet is really a very small place, particularly Myspace.

It wasn't long before I received an email from my youngest sister (with whom I hadn't spoken since my mom died in 2004 and haven't seen face-to-face since my dad died in 1992), who also had a profile on Myspace... along with her three children (the weddings to which I was never invited), their spouses or significant others, her grandchildren and her husband (my brother-in-law that I have met only once). Then one of my grandsons started a Myspace profile and my circle of Myspace friends has grown to include not only my sister and her family, but my youngest son, two grandsons, a daughter-in-law and her mother. But, enough of the family stuff. My blogs will punctuated with this crap, so you will learn more as I proceed.

My point being, Myspace no longer gives me the real privacy and anonymity to say what I want the way I want to say it without the fear of offending a family member or hurting someone's feelings.

So, what am I trying to accomplish? Get healthier. Lose weight. Speak my mind and my heart. If I don't write about it, I will continue to chew on it, whatever "it" is.

I am 5 feet 2-1/2" tall and weigh 198 pounds. My husband, Tom, gave me a gym membership as a gift this last Christmas. I love it. I am using the treadmill at the gym and have started a version of the Couch-to-5K (C25K) program on CoolRunning.com. I started this program a couple of times before, but quit both times due to injuries. It has been difficult each time to find the motivation to start again and follow through. I am hoping this blog will help me do that.

I have about 50 minutes of music on my iPod. I walk the first 5 minutes or so (the first song) and then run 3 minutes and walk 2 minutes until the first song starts again, then I walk to that.

If you are an experienced runner, you won't find anything of interest here. I am not accomplished. I have never run a 5K, let alone a marathon. I run slow! Really slow: 3.5 miles per hour according to the treadmill stats. But it feels really, really good. When I started the first time a couple of years ago, I couldn't even run a full 30 seconds and worked my way up to running for 2 minutes before I got a stress fracture in my foot. The second time I started, I was running for 3 minutes at a time before I broke one foot and tore ligaments in the other in an unrelated accident. When I started back this time, I was still able to run at least 1 minute and within a couple of weeks I am back to running 3 minutes at a time.

My problem is consistency. That is what I am struggling with now.

And the beat goes on....