Adventures in Walking From the Couch to 5K - Chapter 21

It’s the day before the race and AJ is just waking up to the sun peeking through her window blinds. The townhouse is so quiet with the boys gone to their dad’s. She gets up, gets dressed and goes downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast.

What to eat for breakfast? She fixes a bowl of oatmeal with raisins, brown sugar and maple syrup along with a glass of low-acid, pulp-free orange juice. Sitting down to eat breakfast AJ has her laptop open, and she is browsing through her email.

There’s an email from Angela, “Good morning walkers! It’s been a great training season and you are ready to take on this race. I want to make sure that you are ready for race morning. Here’s a list of things you will want to do today to make tomorrow morning easier.

• Set out your clothes: tops, bottoms, socks

• Put your shoes by the door

• Put a change of socks and shoes or sandals in a bag for after the race

• Fill your water bottles and put them in the fridge

• Put your race snacks in your waist pack

• Put your bib number on your waist pack

• Put your waist pack with your keys

Enjoy your day and I will see you ladies in the morning at the grocery store parking lot that faces University at 6:00 am.

Happy Walking!

Angela”

AJ finishes her breakfast, puts her dishes in the dishwasher and goes into the living room to do her exercises. She opens her exercise booklet, just to make sure she gets them all in.

After the exercises AJ puts on her shoes, goes out to her garage and gets her bike out. She puts on her helmet and heads out on her bike for a casual bike ride. Riding down the road she stops at a neighbor’s place where they are sitting out on the front porch.

“Hi Danielle!” AJ says to the lady on the front porch.

“Hi AJ! How are things going? Are you still training for that race?” Danielle responds.

“Yes I am. The race is tomorrow. Today is a relaxing day. The boys are at their dad’s and I am getting ready for the race.”

“Very cool. Let me know how you do. I can’t wait to hear about it.”

“Oh, I will come over and tell you all about it. Maybe for my next race you can join me. This program really helped me. The people are great too.”

“Where are you headed on your bike?”

“I am just going around the neighborhood, nothing really exciting or strenuous. Then for some lunch at home. Want to join me?”

“Sure, swing by on your way back.”

“I will.”

“See you soon then.”

“See you soon.”

AJ pedals off down the road. She rides the outer circle of the complex, then in the inner circle, up in the front of the complex by the neighborhood pool, and then she rides back by Danielle’s.

“Hey! I am headed home,” AJ shouts out to Danielle on the front porch.

“I’ll be right over!”

Arriving home, AJ puts her bike in the garage, goes inside, opens the front door, and then gets the pasta salad out of the refrigerator. She’s getting everything set on the table when Danielle arrives.

“Hey! I’m here!”

“Come on in! I am in the kitchen.”

Danielle enters the kitchen, “looks good. What all is in the salad?”

AJ smiles, “A little of everything: diced ham, diced salami, diced pepperoni, diced mozzarella cheese, shredded pizza cheese, finely ground Parmesan cheese, mini farfalle or bow tie pasta and Caesar Italian dressing. I have some on the side in case you want more dressing.”

“It looks delicious. Can’t wait to try it.”

“Thanks. What do you want to drink? I have Phyzix Tropical, Phyzix Acai Berry, Phyzix Zero, Crystal Light Wild Strawberry, Xyience Frostberry, and water. I also have Phyzix EnergyStix Natural Citrus or Mixed Berry to mix in water.”

“Wow, quite the selection. I will go with the Phyzix Zero. I love the flavor, it reminds me of Squirt.”

“Alright, do you want a glass of ice with it or just out of the can?”

“Out of the can is fine with me.”

“Here’s a can for you and one for me.”

After taking a few bites of the salad Danielle says, “This is really good! This dressing is really different. I like it. I’ll have to get some.”

“Yes, I use whatever dressing sounds good when I am looking at the dressings. This is one of my favorites, but it is hard to find.”

“Awesome. I will keep an eye out for it. Oh yeah, I got my shipment yesterday and I have started on my supplements. I really like mixing so many of them into a smoothie. It does make things easier. The only one I don’t mix in is my fish oil. Next up is the exercise part.”

“I can help you with some of the exercises. It’d be great to have you join me in the training program. I am planning on continuing with my training with Angela. She’s at the Fitness for Life gym. I figure I’ll train with her and then join the training program for the 10K next year. I love how I feel now that I am walking and exercising. I’ll get you a copy of the exercises. I do them every day. It has really helped.”

“That would be great. I need something. Can you take a guest to the gym? I’d love to try it.”

“I don’t think I can, because I haven’t joined yet. I am sure that Angela could do something though and if she can’t there’s a really nice saleslady there named Jessie. I am going on Saturday, come on along and we’ll see what they can do for you.”

“I can do that. Let me know when you go to leave and I’ll come along.”

They finish up their salad, AJ puts their dishes in the dishwasher, and they go out on the porch with their drinks.

“Wait here and I’ll go get my exercise booklet. I have it in the living room,” says AJ, and she goes to get her exercise booklet.

Returning with the booklet, she sets down next to Danielle and opens it, “Here’s the booklet of exercises that I was telling you about. Each page has the exercise description and a couple of pictures on it. I have found it really easy to follow. I use it everyday, even though I know the exercises, I use the booklet to keep me on track and make sure I don’t forget to do any of the exercises. I’ll ask Angela if we can get you a copy of it.”

“This is nice. I could follow these. That’d be great if I could get a copy of them.”

After thumbing through the exercises Danielle says, “Well, I must be going. I am sure you have things to do today to finish getting ready for tomorrow.”

“Yes, I do have stuff to do, but glad we could talk. I’ll see you soon.”

“See you soon!” and Danielle walks towards home.

AJ goes back inside and takes her exercise booklet with her. She goes into the living room, sits down on her reclining sofa and turns on the TV. She turns her favorite channel on, the Hallmark Channel, and relaxes for a few hours with her feet up.

The afternoon passes quickly and when AJ looks at the time on her phone she discovers it’s time for dinner. She gets up, goes into the kitchen and fixes herself a bowl of the pasta salad and a glass of Crystal Light Wild Strawberry with ice. She then takes the bowl and glass into the living room to watch more of her favorite channel and eat dinner at the same time.

When she’s finished with dinner she takes her dishes, puts them in the dishwasher, starts the dishwasher and goes back into the living room. AJ checks her email, reads the email from Angela again, and then she posts on Facebook about her race in the morning and how she is nervous. She gets lots of responses to her post encouraging her that she can do it and “you got this!” Scrolling through she sees that many of her friends are doing one of the races in the morning. AJ leaves encouraging messages for her friends.

After her movie on the Hallmark Channel gets done she goes in the kitchen for some dessert. She then sits on her front porch with her glass of chocolate milk and her bowl of strawberries with angel food cake. The sun is just peaking above the tree line in the west. She enjoys the sounds of the crickets in the nearby field.

AJ thinks to herself. I am so excited. I cannot believe I am doing my first race tomorrow. Do I have everything together? I will check on that list when I go inside.

Looking down at her watch she sees that it’s time to go in and get everything together for the morning. AJ picks up her dishes, goes inside, puts her empty dishes in the dishwasher, and runs up the stairs to get her things together. AJ lays her purple tank top, black spandex shorts, purple sports bra, white Wright socks and black underwear out on her dresser. She also checks her phone and sets her alarm, actually two of them, so she will not be late.

Next she grabs her sandals and puts them in a cinch sack. AJ goes downstairs with her cinch sack and places it next to the door along with her shoes. She goes into the kitchen and fills her water bottles, one with plain water and the other with Crystal Light Wild Strawberry. After she puts them in the fridge she gets her race snacks together, which are a small bag of sport jelly beans and a mini size Payday bar. Her waist pack is on the counter, and she puts her snacks in the pack. The goodie bag from the expo is also on the counter. Taking her bib number out of the bag she attaches it to her waist pack and then gets her keys from the key hook and sets them with her waist pack on the kitchen table.

AJ sighs in relief that everything is together and goes upstairs to enjoy the relaxing hot tub. She turns the TV on that is mounted above the hot tub and watches the Hallmark Channel. Her show gets done and AJ dries off and goes to bed, all ready for her big day tomorrow.

Continue Reading - Chapter 22