Playful Rooted

Back in the day, when I was in great shape and had tons of free time, I would post my weekly workouts on this little blog. When my hosting expired, I lost all of those posts, which I totally think was a blessing in disguise because if I looked back now on where I used to be, I could get pretty depressed.

Long story short, I haven’t worked out consistently in a long time. Months. Months?! Yes, months. Ironic that fitness is in the name of my blog and it’s been that long since I’ve made it a priority. But when you’re busy, things just get away from you if you don’t stay focused on them. You know?

Last May, my sister and I attended Wanderlust 108 here in Kansas City, and it was amazing. (It’s a “mindful triathlon” event that includes a 5k, yoga, and guided meditation; read more here.) We both left feeling incredible and vowed that it would become a yearly tradition. Which means that it’s coming up again in a couple months! I realized this the other day, and my first thought was, “Holy crap, I’m out of shape!” No way I could run a decent 5k in the state I am right now. So that was the first impetus to get myself regularly moving again and get some 5k training done before the event in May.

And the second was realizing how much Luca learns every single day right now. He’s in an amazing phase of life where he is always, always watching and soaking everything up. Sometimes it completely stuns both Ben and me how quickly Luca has picked up on something. It’s crazy! But knowing how much he’s absorbing right now has made me more intentional about setting a good example and creating the foundation of our family life. Regular exercise is definitely an important part of both of those, so I’m making it a priority. It’s easy to make excuses when I’m the only one who’s impacted, but when it’s for my family too, those excuses are harder to justify. Our babies really do make us better. 🙂

So, I’m starting with the smallest and “easiest” thing — the Novice 5K Training Program from Hal Higdon. I’ve got eight weeks until this year’s Wanderlust, so the timing should work out pretty well. The program is simple and incorporates plenty of rest days, which is essential. Let’s be honest, as easy as it seems to fit all these short runs in, some days it’s probably not going to happen (that’s something I never would have been able to accept pre-baby, but life is what it is now), so it’s a bonus that the rest days will allow for some flexibility.

I’m actually excited to start documenting this from here because I am totally out of shape. It’s kind of like starting from scratch, so it will be cool to look back on this one day and see how far I’ve come. 🙂 I’m also curious to see how it will all look with the added components of life: toddler, school work, weather, travel, etc. It will be a big learning process but I’m honestly really looking forward to it.

xo!