Slow-n-Steady

Two nights ago I did one crossword puzzle.  I had to look in the back to check my guesses and spelling nine times.  (Insert Ferris Bueller's principal's voice here.)  Nine times!  Yep, nine times.  And the title of this book is "Fast and Easy Crossword Puzzles".  So, today I timed myself and tallied the number of times I had to check the solutions page.  I started at 6:50 and didn't finish until 7:25.  I had to check the back only six times.   Then, I did another one in twenty minutes and only had to check the back three times.  I feel like that is still hopelessly lame but it's a start and it's kind of like training for a marathon...slow-n-steady wins the race.

Speaking of training...
This weekend I will run in a 5K race.  I've been running off and on for a couple of years.  As I get stronger, running gets easier.  When I was running a lot I could do six or more miles without any trouble.  Mostly I stopped running just because I was bored and just generally wanted to be done.  I never felt that my muscles couldn't go any farther...just bored.  Then I actually hurt my knee and didn't run for about six months to a year.

This school year I stopped exercising in the morning before school and we started exercising in the evenings as a family.  That was fun but kind of inconsistent.  Some days I had homework to do, some days my daughter had homework, some days .... and on and on.  In November, December, and January I ran a few times each week.   Then, I got this wild hair and looked up the Gasparilla race website.  I think that was in February and at the time there were about eight or nine weeks of training until race day.  However, my period went all kinds of wacky and sidelined me.  The race is this weekend.  My goal is to run the whole thing and not stop to walk at all.

We shall see...