As a little girl, my ultimate dream was to be Miss America...second to that was dentist, not sure how the two compared. Anyway, my favorite gift that was ever given to me at this time (I was probably about 4 y/o) was a treasure chest full of princess-type dress-up clothes from my Grandma Eileen (RIP). I wore these elaborate outfits anytime I got the chance. Sometimes I would even find a way to put every item of clothing in the treasure chest on all at once. It was quite the fashion statement. One of my favorites things to do while dressed up was to dance wildly in my living room while blaring a Rolling Stones record (yes, an actual record) with my cat as my audience. I was in my own world; I was Miss America! This was my reality.
Being a child is such a surreal time in ones life. It's probably the only time when you are completely blind to the concerns about body image that you will later face, especially as a growing girl.
I'm going to jump further into to present....way further. When I entered junior high "the big change" hit and boy did it hit me hard. It seemed that overnight I had developed love-handles (that weren't at all lovely) and these cute little red bumps randomly sprinkled over my face. Just what every young girl dreads. I went from thinking that I was the most beautiful child in the world to thinking that I'd become some kind of teenage ogre. Ya'know how the ugly duckling turned into the elegant swan? Well, I went the opposite way. It also didn't help that the other kids made fun of me constantly because I was still extremely shy and I was the perfect target for the bully-types. So how did I cope?? I ate and ate and ate mounds of junk food. Luckily, I still had a fairly fast metabolism, so I didn't gain too much weight, but I gained enough to make my body appear totally out of proportion. This is typical for a junior-high-aged kid, but I didn't realize that at the time, nor did I want it. Plus, the only (half-assed) exercise that I was getting was in gym class, which I still despised due to all of the past bad experiences I had and continued to have during gym.
As expected, my gym class exercising got cut short when, yet another, adversity happened.
One afternoon, we were practicing field football. I was a horrible catcher (and still am to this day) and was never able to catch the ball, even from the softest of throws. Then, a miracle happened, I caught ball!! I couldn't believe it! BUT the miraculous moment quickly ended when I suddenly felt a shooting pain run down my middle finger. Yep, that's right, I broke my finger catching a football. The sports gods were against me once again! Because of this, I was pulled out of gym for the rest of the semester. The teacher didn't allow me to participate in any activities (even the ones not involving fingers) due to some kind of school policy (that they clearly didn't have in middle school). Everyday after that, I would sit in the bleachers, non-intentionally flipping people the bird because my middle finger had to be wrapped straight up. Most kids would've completely took advantage of the situation, but I was completely mortified.
So, between getting hit in the head by kickballs, skinning my knees on a gravel track, and breaking my finger by simply catching a football, I had completely given up on all things fitness related, which meant I got essentially no exercise and maintained my awkward shaped body for quite some time. I wish that I had pictures so that you could see that I am not exaggerating, but I didn't allow many pictures to be taken of me at this time for obvious reasons. I had also completely thrown out my childhood dreams of ever trying to become a model.
It took me awhile (years!) to recognize that fitness was essential for good health and that there were other ways to get in shape that didn't involve catching balls or limping around on sharp gravel tracks. When I hit my twenties, I wanted to do something about this out-of-shape body that I had spent my highschool years developing. I joined a local gym where I participated in aerobics classes and used the elliptical machines. I was still slightly timid about exercising, so I never really got the results that I wanted. When I finally got the courage to take up running (fairly recently), the results were almost instant. The weight literally fell off of my body and I was feeling more energetic (and athletic) each time I went for a run. Now, after every week of training, I notice a new, positive change in my body. This is the first time in my life that I've actually felt in good shape rather than in awkward shape.
I'm not trying to brag (honestly), but since I've stuck to a strict running regimen, my body now comes close to meeting the standards of a Victoria's Secret model (well except that I'm not tall enough, but can't do much about that). Now, I don't ever plan to pursue modeling, I have my mind set on being a runner, I am just proud to say that my childhood modeling dream was not just an obscure thought afterall. I just had work harder at it. I strongly believe that if you want something bad enough, you can achieve it with the right mindset and a hard-working mentality. Now go hit the track people!
Week Six Training
7/13 - Rest day
7/14 - 4 mile run
7/15 - 3 mile run
7/16 - Speedwork, 7 miles
-One warmup mile
-3 miles sprinting with half mile jogs in between each mile
-One cooldown mile
7/17 - 3 mile run
7/18 - Rest day
7/19 - Long run - 10 miles
Total miles for the week: 27
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