Oct. 7- My first 5k race

I knew my fitness challenge was going to need a little help keeping me on track so I signed up today for my first ever 5k race. The race is on Oct. 31st and will be a perfect ending to my month of challenges unless I chicken out... after all, it is on Halloween! The race is called the 5k HOB GOB'LN and takes place on the Pinella's Trail at 7pm just after dark in downtown Dunedin, FL. Now this would normally be the time that I would be handing out fun size chocolate candy to the neighbor kids and stuffng my own mouth between doorbell rings. So I'm forfeiting that in exchange for the race which in and of itself is another challenge for me.

In order for me to be ready and in shape to run this race I won't be able to talk myself out of my daily fitness routine. I must get up early everyday and do 20min. of pilates before work then after work I will be doing a 30min. walk/run combo to try and work myself up to being able to run the race...or at least most of it. This is a pretty big goal for me and I hope I can do it. I will have the support and advice of my boyfriend Tom who has run his share of races and will be a great inspiration. I'm sure gonna miss those fun size chocolate bars on Halloween though...I'm just sayin'!

Oct 6- staying fit

So yeah, sure, it's not that easy staying fit when you're over 50. I've never had to worry about it because I was just naturally on the thin side and I've never been a huge eater. But gone are my "two days of starving to get back to into my jeans" diet. It's way past that and I have to get it under control. My arms have gotten jiggly and my tummy hasn't look like this since I was 4 months pregnant. So, I'm challenging myself to spend 45 min. each day doing some kind of exercise. I get so bored with the same routine everyday and I really hate the gym which I'm sure is carried over from the torture that was junior high dodge ball in the school gym.

Today's challenge was to walk my dog for 30min. at a much faster pace than we normally walk. I really wanted to get my heart rate up so that this would my aerobic part of the workout. Then do some pilates/yoga on my mat at home. The walk part went fairly smoothly except that we do live in Florida and it's still very hot and muggy so my little doggie got kind of hot and tired about 10min. into the walk. Me, feeling sorry for her, turned around and came back to the house and ended up with just a 20min. walk. This workout thing is going to be harder than I thought. I have to really focus and not give myself an out...no excuses...just do it, right?

The pilates/yoga part went better. 140 crunches, deep knee bends, some yoga moves I learned from a class and some weird moves I picked up from watching Jack Lalanne over my mom's shoulder. 15 min. later I feel my back is hurting from the weird moves and I'm sure I should stop to keep from further injuring it, so I do. I feel a pattern coming on. I have to keep going if I plan on staying fit through my 50's. Today didn't go so well but this isn't going to be my last fitness challenge. Maybe tennis?

Oct 5- Old friends

I've just recently re-connected with two couples that were my very dear friends from our college years and into our early 20's. You know how it goes...one day you're thick as thieves and the next thing you know, everyone has moved to another city, had babies and started new lives. The one thing that kept us so close in our youth was our lack of responsibility and the wasteful use of money on the weekends. Once those things came to a screeching halt, it was painful to try and get together only to be reminded of what it used to be like before kids and the lack of disposable income. So, we went our separate ways but did our best to stay in touch through occassional phone calls and birthday cards.

Last weekend one of those couples' daughter got married. I wasn't able to get away from work to attend the wedding, but asked to see the photos. Today, they were emailed to me and I was a little nervous to see them. I knew they would be beautiful and elegant but also knew that it would be emotionally difficult to look at the images. Where did all those years go and how did one of us have a daughter old enough to get married? Why do the parents, my peers, look so much older but their daughter look so youthful... as we once did?

I look in the mirror and want to see the same face as when we were in our 20's and sometimes I think I do. But there's nothing like a friends' daughter getting married to slap you in the face of reality....we aren't 20 anymore and it shows! So, even though it did make me tear up to look at the pictures, it was a milestone, because this is a new phase in our collective post college years' lives that I can face without getting sad. The memories of our past are fun to think about but hopefully now that we've re-connected and our kids are gaining their independence, we can make new memories in this next phase of our lives.

Mike, Gail, Dan and Susan...you all looked fantastic!

Oct 4-texting...sort of

I don't know why I've never really wanted to learn how to text. I guess with email and voice mail I didn't feel the need to have one more way to stay connected. How do you choose which way you're going to go? It seems that life has gotten so complicated with all the choices we're given in any given situation that if I could control it by NOT learning something than it seemed that I was keeping things simple. But, it's not that easy.

I was meeting some girlfriends out one night at a place neither of them had been before, but I had. One girl got completely lost and was sending me text messages unbknownst to me. I was happily sitting at the bar sipping on a glass of zinfandel when she walked in and gave me that look where you know you've pissed her off but you don't know what you did. "I've been texting you for the last 30min. while I was driving around in circles passing the same places over and over...why didn't you answer me back?" Ummm, that's a really good question. And, since she is about 13 years younger than me I lied and said my phone had been acting up. Sorry Tracy, but the truth is I've never learned how to text...until today!! Yeah me!!

So, it's not that I'm gliding through the world of texting with the ease of a 17 year old while at the wheel of her mustang. No, it's more like I had to pull over, park in the Target parking lot and spend 10min trying to send a message back to my sister. It was extremely painful and awkward not to mention embarrassing. My cryptic message was like I didn't know what a preposition was or how to make compound words. My 4th grade english teacher would have been horrified.

I'm not going to give up though. I just signed up with my dentist to get text messages to remind me of my next appointment. That's a decent use for this new form of communication. I'll let you know if I find anymore.

Oct 3- Sunshine Skyway

Not all my challenges will be about social networking, although they probably could fill up the month If I wanted to try and be as savvy as any 20 something. But, that's not my end goal. I really wanted to try and conquer a few other fears that have been lurking for awhile like my huge fear of heights. The only panic attack I've ever had was when I was given a hotel room in Atlanta on the 31st floor and the only way up was a glass elevator. Going up was fine, but when I tried to leave my room and return to the lobby I froze, unable to step inside the elevator to go back down. After returning to my room, laying down for an hour and convincing myself that it was the only way out, I made it back down with my suitcase to ask for another room...on a much lower floor.

Anyway, today I challenged myself to drive over the Sunshine Skyway bridge. The bridge is about 1 hour south of our home and it's tall enough for the largest cruise ships to pass under. The worst part of the bridge is that it appears to go straight up like a roller coaster ride. I had rode over it once before but since I wasn't driving I could cover my eyes until we made it across. Obviously that didn't really count so today...I DID IT!!! I drove while Tom (my boyfriend) took pictures and sang along with the radio trying to keep me calm. He of course had a vested interest in my not panicing so he did a good job of sweet talking me through it. Although I was white knuckled the entire way and I didn't stop gripping the wheel until at least 5 miles past the bridge, I made it over and back again. It's not something I need to do on a daily basis, but if family or friends come to visit I won't worry if they want to take a drive to Sarasota because I have conquered the bridge and know I can do it again...unless it's windy...or foggy...or there's wet pavement...or a wreck and I have to stop at the top and sit there while they tow the cars!!! Dear god I'll never do it again.

Oct 2- Embarrassing my daughter

I knew that once I was up and running on Facebook I would have to face the enevitable and tell my daughter that I was officially "on" and yes, I was afraid and slightly embarrassed to tell her. I knew from all her past moaning and groaning about other friends' parents on Facebook that it was implied that it was off limits for me. I'm sure we both had a big laugh at some point about all those other parents trying to act like they're cool too by being "friends" with the friends of their sons and daughters.
I've always lived by the philosophy that what I don't know won't hurt me when it comes to my daughter. I don't really need to see the late night photos taken at the local pub in her college town. And, she doesn't need to be hesitant about what she adds to her facebook page because she thinks that I'm watching it daily and waiting to pull the ole' "hey, I'm paying for these years so you better do more studying and less partying" line on her.
So, Chelsey, if you're reading this (which I doubt) feel free to post away freely because even though I love you with all my heart I will never invite you to be my friend and I promise you it won't hurt my feelings if you don't invite me.
Love always,
Mom

Oct 1 - Facebook

Today's challenge was to conquer my fear of Facebook. I knew that the best way to get the word out to my friends and family about my blog was through Facebook, but remember, my first attempt to join didn't go so well. I ended up deleting my page less than 24 hours after setting it up because I wasn't sure how to block the freaks, geeks, needy, clingy drama queens from my past. I'm not interested in re-connecting with my "classmates" because I'm not sure I'd remember if I liked them or not. Were we friends...did we hang in the same circles...did you ditch me with your mean friends one friday night while you went to the game with the Mitch Taylor? See where I'm going, you could accept a friend only to realize later, after checking them out in your dusty, yellowed yearbook, that you never liked them back then and you certainly don't want to waste your valuable older years on them now. Once discovered, how do you "un-friend or de-friend" them? Is this possible?

Today I have finished my challenge and it hopefully won't come back to bite me in the butt. I joined Facebook again and I tried my best to block that one person...maybe two, that I don't ever want to find me...ever. I managed to post my link to this blog after my 3rd try (the first two I forgot to hit the "share" button and it kept disappearing). And I actually found a few family members that I didn't realize were also on Facebook who are older than me I might add. So, although I assumed that Facebook is something just for the 20 and 30 somethings, it appears that it could end up being relevant to my life too.