Dancing with Dolphins and 5 k

Last week I was talking to Teddy as I was packing my gym bag, it went something like this:

Me: OK Bear... ready to go meet daddy outside the Y?
Teddy: Y? Y daddy?
Me: Yup.
Teddy (thinking): Mummy? Mummy dancing? Dancing in paddling pool?
Me: That's right baby, mummy's going dancing in the paddling pool!
Teddy: Mummy dance dance dance. Hop on a dolphin. Ride a dolphin?
Me (kind of nonplussed): Oh-kay... Yup? Mummy ride a dolphin.
Teddy (nodding): YAH!

I LOVE it. I kind of wish I could spend the day living my life as my bear imagines I do. With SUPER healing powers and dolphin riding.


But.
These days I don't actually go dancing in the paddling pool with dolphins as much. Last month I realised that I wasn't really breaking a sweat or breathing hard in the classes I was doing. Which meant that it was time to do something harder. Which, you guys, was actually a bit difficult, mentally like.
I've never been a "WHOO feel the BURN HOOYAH!" type of person. AT ALL. In fact Deep Water Running/Aquafit was the only exercise I've ever actually liked (and thusly stuck with for more than a month). So doing something new was WAY out of my comfort zone.
But I sucked it up, put on my sneakies and took a spin class.

The first one was BRUTAL.
I couldn't hardly do it and I kind of wanted to barf in my hands. NOT fun.
And some of the other participants were a little different from an aquafit class. For example, nobody in DWR wears a shirt emblazoned with the legend "TESTosterone" or shouts "HUAAAAGH" at the top of hills.
But the second class I went to was better and I did my third class yesterday and I TOTALLY KICKED IT'S ASS HUAAAAGH! So that's nice.

The other thing is running. Now, my policy on running thus far has been NOT TO or, not to unless I'm being chased by something I can't fight.
It was working out just fine for me.
Then I saw this. It's Julia Jones 5K training program. I was curious, so I clicked through to the week one training plan, and thought Well HEY, that doesn't look TOO sucky. So I stuck my sneakies on and went to the running track at the Y (on a Sunday just before closing time when I knew it would be DESERTED).

It was... HARD. But OK, I guess.
Well until I got into the elevator at home and looked down to see my heels chopped up like raw meat and my sneakies covered in gore. You'd think I'd have noticed but I, apparently, am JOHN McCLANE.
So new sneakies and a burst of inspiration in the form of Erin over at HOWL who just did her first 5k in SUPER awesome style (snaps for her!) and the next run was faster and easier. It's almost as if practice makes for improvement... but that's CRAZY TALK!

So that's that. Exercise - maybe not "WHOO feel the BURN HOOYAH!" but like, "OK, I guess"