Day one of training is in the bag. Day one of real training, that is. Today’s goal was to run or walk or both for 20 minutes.

It was a challenge much different than my attempt last week. No vomit, but it was a struggle just to get going. Schedules worked out to where I had to wait for the He-Rahn to get home before I could jaunt off down the road. He went hiking this evening and didn’t get back until after 8pm.

In the meantime, I picked up The Boy from school, fixed dinner, built a rocket ship tractor out of legos, watched a Duck Dodgers, bathed and bed The Boy. After all that, I made the mistake of sitting down. When The He-Rahn arrived at 8pm, I was almost asleep. I was pooped. The last thing I wanted to do was run.

For me, half the battle of doing something like this, is actually getting up and going. Sometimes I expend more effort talking myself out of something or rationalizing NOT doing something, that I never get started. It’s even easier to talk myself out of it when I’m ready to sink into my pillow top. I’ve always been like this. That’s probably a surprise to a few people who think I’m one of the more motivated people they know. But I can be a big lazy slug when I want to. Tonight though, I managed to drag myself off the couch and off I went.

It was warm tonight, but not 107 like it was the other day. About 95 I think, and a tail end of a storm was blowing through my part of town. It was nice, actually. A tad humid, but not suffocatingly so. My plan was to run in one direction for 15 minutes, turn around and head back home. I ran off and on the first 15, and walked most of the way on the return.

After running 5 - 10 minutes straight, my feet started tingling. That sensation you get when parts of your body falls asleep happened on one half of each of my feet - the inside half. I thought maybe my shoes were tied too tight. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow.

And can I just ask who was the brainiac who thought man-made lakes in Arizona were good ideas? I live near one, and trying to run around it tonight, I damn near passed out the stench was so bad. It’s been hot and there are probably all sorts of bacteria cultures living in that cesspool. Ick.

I also have more wardrobe issues. The sports bra held up as expected, which was not at all. I need to get a couple of decent slings. But I had an unexpected problem - Chub Rub. Well, maybe not unexpected in that I know my thighs rub together. But I had no idea how that would effect my run.

I wore a pair of old running shorts that hit me at mid thigh. So half the time the inseams of the shorts rub together and eventually migrate to the space between where my leg attaches and my crotch. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Look around at a fat chick. If she’s wearing shorts, the legs of the shorts never stay parallel to the ground. The inseam is always firmly planted in her crotch to that it looks like she’s trying to hold the legs of her shorts between her legs. I was either picking out the shorts without looking like I was fishing for something. Or I was running funny, almost waddling at a high rate of speed (wraddling?) to prevent the shorts creepage. It was very annoying. I either need shorts that start up there, or I need to wear pants. Chub Rub will eventually cause sores if I don’t.

So yeah, I obsessed about that most of the run and the next thing I knew I was home.

And now I’m ready to sleep for days. But I did it, and that’s half the battle with me.

See you tomorrow for Day Two.