Humpty Dance!

Happy Hump Day, all! That phrase always makes me giggle inside. Wanna know where I first heard it? My seventh-grade teacher. He was an old man, so it was a tad weird.

My last post about my faux plateau got me thinking about how I need to step it up — literally. My friend Elizabeth has a way of getting me to do something even when I’m unsure about it, but in a good way, of course! She texted me the other night and said we should run a 5K together in September. WE’RE GONNA DO IT!!!! Neither of us are big runners, so this is a pretty big deal.


This 5K is part of Applefest in La Crescent, MN — known as the Apple Capital of Minnesota. Our registration fee gets us a long-sleeved T-shirt and, get this, A BAG OF APPLES! The proceeds from the race are going to a handful of good causes in La Crescent, which makes me more than happy to hand over my dough. But most of all, soooo pumped about the bag of apples!!!! Oh, and they provide apple cider at the finish line. How cute is that?! I’ll probably stick with water, but who knows?

My hometown in Wisconsin is just over the Mississippi River from La Crescent, and I have very fond memories of driving over to this awesome apple market with my mom. They have nearly 50 kinds of apples, so we’d walk around the shop, slice off a piece of each, and then leave with some bags of our favorites. Yummers! I heart fresh apples. Things just taste better when they’re grown locally. Oh my gosh, I just called my mom while writing this because I’m getting nostalgic. My mouth is watering.


Now that I have an actual event with a set date, I NEED TO WORK IT. This morning I woke up early and went for a 30-minute run/walk. It felt so good! (I need to remember that feeling so it’s easier for me to roll out of bed rather than reset the alarm.) I warmed up with a brisk walk for a few minutes and then told myself that I’d run for the duration of the next song that came on my iPod. It was my lucky day! Layla by Derek and the Dominos popped up — that’s a seven-minute song. And you know what? I did it. I ran for the entire song. Then I walked for a minute and ran for another two. Then I walked for a minute and ran for another three. You get the idea :) Basically, I just made up my own rules for running/walking based on my music and mood.


I’ve looked at the Couch-to-5K running plan, and I think I’ll tweak it to my liking. I’m not really at “couch” level, so why would I begin there? I’m closer to the Week 3 or 4 level, so I’ll probably try that. I only have a little more than seven weeks until the event anyway, so this works out quite nicely.

Back to this morning: I stretched when I got home from my run and decided to try something new to me. Mapmyrun.com. Why haven’t I used this before!??! It’s pretty neat, let me tell you. I just clicked around on the map of my route and voila! I now have an accurate measure of how many miles I’m trekking. My past method was based on my driving the route and just guessing the difference the street and my actual course. For instance, I estimated my Como Lake route at 4.8 miles. Mapmyrun.com calculates it at 5.2 miles. Ooodang! I’ve been going farther than I thought! Love it.

I’m going for a walk with Elizabeth tonight, so of course we’ll need to take the Como Lake route, with my new knowledge and all. We’re both gonna be looking so hott for her wedding in less than two weeks ;) ALSO, hollaaaaa to my friend Danielle. Happy birthday, chica!

I’m very motivated right now, if you can’t tell. I feel like doing a humpty dance right here in my chair. Burn some extra cals and make it a great Hump Day!