Making a BOLD decision

Somehow, I have designated Tuesdays as the day I talk about health and wellness.  I do this, so that those of you who are disinterested in these topics can either naturally skip over me, or come up with something hilarious and sarcastic for us to laugh about.  Either way, Tuesdays are for health and fitness talk.

I've come to the conclusion that it's time for me to move on from a weight lifting-centered fitness plan.  No, I haven't completed the 90 days.  No, I don't feel bad about it either.  No sense of failure, just the sense that I'm ready for something else.

I feel like I am losing more fitness than I am gaining, because my cardiovascular endurance has suffered greatly from this current plan.  And I've been too fatigued from the weight training to add in the extra cardio I would need.  So I'm going to shift gears, back to what I know gives me a feeling of well-being, stress relief, and added energy.

I'm going back to a cardio based plan, and I'm going to incorporate 2 days of moderate weight training in to balance everything out and keep me injury-free.

Why?

I have had a pretty solid goal for myself for the last few months now, that I've quietly shared with several of you.  I want to run a half marathon (13.1 miles) next May.  And not only do I want to run it, I want to rock it.  I've very carefully laid out a training program that will start in November, and take me up to race day.  Yup, I have a 6 month plan.  And I do intend to start easy; in fact, I'll be starting over with the 5k plan I used when I trained for the 5k I did last May.  But my goal this time through is to use the 5k training plan to build speed, not stamina.  That means that I need to get some stamina back PRONTO, so that I can work on speed later. 

A little more stamina would have made a HUGE difference here!

So since I'm writing this on Sunday, we're going to assume I can see into the future, and I'm going to tell you that on Monday, I picked up with running again.  Slowly, because lately, I've been lucky to do better than a 12 minute mile.  But I'm going to work at it, and I'm going to do 3-4 days a week of cardio.

To those of you who are worried now that weight lifting isn't for you:  still give it a try.  I was seeing gains in my muscular strength, but my long-term fitness goals don't require nearly as much muscular strength as I was gaining.  You need to find the right workout to meet your goals.  Some people want to look great, have a good metabolism, and be in and out of the gym.  For those people, strength training is great.  For other people, working out is a way to quiet your mind, a way to let go of fears and anxiety, and something you need in order to stay sane.  I certainly fall into that category, and I prefer the slightly longer, less intense cardio workout.  There is nothing that makes me feel more at peace than a 2 hour hike, or a nice long bike ride.

So I guess what this comes down to is that I know who I am, where I'm at, and where I want to go.  While I've really enjoyed working thorough a program that's so different from what I usually do, I'm read to go back to what I love.  And I'm pretty excited to be changing gears again.