Exercise update: starting is the hardest part

After my 6 week (already?!) postpartum check up on Thursday, the doctor gave me the green light to begin exercising.  At first, I thought, I’ll start on Monday. Then I realized that I was just putting it off.  Why not start now?  What was so special about Monday?

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So instead, I just started.  On Friday.  The last day of the work week.  The beginning of the weekend.  The day I look forward to relaxing with some sweet and salty popcorn and watching a movie with my love.  I started.

I don’t have a detailed plan for my post-pregnancy fitness.  We don’t have gym memberships so my options are limited what I can do at home or outside.  I just plan to get creative and do what I can, when I can fit it in, to get myself back in shape and feeling good.

Ultimately, I want to start road racing again, something I haven’t done in four years.  I miss it.  I know I have a long way to go before I’m in road racing shape as it’s been over a year since I’ve ran any significant distance, but I’m excited to get back into it.

There’s one little thing holding me back from jumping into running feet first–it’s January and I live in Ohio.  I guess that’s two things.  Anyway, I have painful memories of my college track days, when I was forced to run outside in frigid temperatures.  I vowed I’d never willfully run in weather under 50 degrees (I’m such a wimp) again.  After college, I moved to Arizona and didn’t have to.

Now I’m back in the freezing Midwest and know that it’s time to either put on my big girl panties and run in the cold weather, or talk Tim into buying me a treadmill.  A treadmill isn’t in the budget right now, not that the thought of running on one day in and day out is that appealing either.

So.  I’ve decided to mix up some cold weather running (spring’s right around the corner anyway, right?) with some workout options I can do at home.  I have a few exercise DVDs, including P90X and also like doing plyometrics and circuit training with hand weights, which can easily be done in my living room.

For Friday, I found this home fitness workout on Pinterest and decided to modify it and let it be my inaugural workout  (jumping jacks six weeks after having a baby=not a good idea).  Here’s what my modified workout looked like

I did each exercise back-to-back and took a 1-2 minute rest between each set.  This was just the type of workout I needed to jump back into fitness.  It was short, it only took me 20 minutes, but fairly intense.  The wall sits were killer!

When I finished, even though I’d only done a 20 minute workout, I felt a fantastic high.  I’d started.  The first workout was under my belt.

I didn’t work out on Saturday, but today, Sunday, I braved the cold for a run/walk outside.  The wind was blowing fiercely, but I bundled up and gave it a go.

I wanted to give myself some grace on my first attempt to run, so I didn’t set my expectations too high.  I told myself that I’d likely walk more than run and that would be okay.  I wasn’t going to beat myself up over it.

Then something happened.  I got really, really cold walking.  I walked for about 5 minutes and thought about turning around probably 35 times.  I forced myself to start running before giving up.  I told myself I could walk when I got to the next street, which was only a few hundred yards away.  Well, I passed that street and just kept running.  It kept me warm and I felt good, so I didn’t stop.

Completely surprising myself, I didn’t walk any more, and ran for 30 minutes.  I wasn’t running fast.  I’m sure I looked like a fool.  But I ran.

And now here I am on Sunday night, with two post pregnancy workouts to my credit. They weren’t super impressive or overly difficult, but they’re done.  Now I don’t have Monday and the prospect of having to start working out hanging over my head when I go to bed.

I started, and getting started is the hardest part.

What do you need to get started on right now?