Hello, Exercise! Have You Missed Me??

After just about two and a half weeks of no exercise and signing up for the Brooklyn half along with a gaggle of awesome girlfriends [did I just call you girls a gaggle?  I'm not even sure what a gaggle is...] , I decided tonight's the night!  I have a few races coming up and cough or no cough, I simply couldn't wait any longer to exercise.


Now, before you go and think I'm a total moron for not listening to doctor's orders after that cough or no cough comment, I haven't behaved myself for this long to just go and throw caution to the wind.  While you may have already heard me *oh so cleverly* mention that I'm hungry to get running again, I decided that I should give the [increasingly less frequent/gross] another day or so to finally get out of my system.  Consequently, I opted for a cardio-free Pilates/Yoga work-out: the Crunch: Super SlimDown, courtesy of my Netflix streaming subscription.  This has the added benefit of crossing #21 (a yoga class - okay, so it was a dvd, but let's not be picky) off my March goal's list.  If you hadn't noticed, March's goals are not going to happen - thanks to a my new friends Flu and Bronchitis, but I did manage to cross 26-28 off the list by squeaking out 3 sets of 10 push ups over the last few days - hey, I'll take what I can get at this point.

Me and another bridesmaid doing push-ups at our lovely friend Kate's wedding.
Perhaps James is onto something about me having bad push-up form...

Ahhh.....finally.....exercise!!!!  Feel the glorious burn!!!!  Now, I'm not necessarily one of those people who can't go a day without sweat or is addicted to working out, but I must say - the endorphins are out in full effect tonight - I would say that this workout was just what the doctor ordered, but we've already been over the fact that clearly it was not.  But, the lack of cardio meant that my lungs didn't freak out during it [okay, maybe one mini coughing spell while stretching, but that totally could have been unrelated to the exercise], and I was really pleased with the workout the Super SlimDown had to offer - not too strenuous, but enough to make you feel some burn - particularly in the arms and core, and not so long that you felt like it would never end.  I would definitely to this DVD again.  Everything is tingly (in a good way) right now and I'm all the more pumped to get my feet in those running shoes again!

Speaking of running again...I have the following races to look forward to:

•  April 1st - New York Colon Cancer (15k)
•  April 7th - Scotland Run (10k) 
•  May 12th - UAE Healthy Kidney (10k) 
•  May 19th - Brooklyn Half Marathon (hopefully you can figure out the distance yourself)
• June 9th - New York Mini 10k (10k, despite the fact that it sounds like a misnomer)
•  June 14th - J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge  (3.5 miles)

If you're reading this [is anyone reading this?] thinking, "so...you still have crud in your lungs and haven't worked out in nearly 3 weeks, you're not a natural athlete, and you're going to try to run a 15k this weekend [or even a 10k next weekend]" - you win a prize.  Well, not really.  But you may be clairvoyant, because that is a will be a topic for posting later this week [i'm sure you can't wait!], and well, being clairvoyant's not a bad consolation prize, huh?

Clearly I'll need to re-evaluate what my goals will be for my spring races after my unplanned break from exercise, so more to come on those once I'm back on the roads.  Reader, do you have any races coming up?  Any particular goals for them?  Do you set a goal for every race, or run some just for the heck of it?

Last two things:

1. In case you didn't see the Comment on the post about Cam's half marathon - she ran the race in 2:03!!! A 12 minute PR!  Hooray, Cam!!!
2. Tomorrow a big surprise is coming.....