Yep, that was just what I needed! Got up at 4:45am and did 4.8 miles with the dog!!! Yay!! Now I'm at work and life is just better cuz I got out of bed and just DID it!!

Thanks for all the encouragement ladies!!! You're all Fabulous!!!

You're welcome. I have trouble getting that workout started pretty much every morning too. I don't know why, I just do. I have a very inspirational friend, and it helps me to think about her when I'm struggling. She's just a little older than me and one day heard this voice in her head say "I think you should run a 5K". To make a long story short, she thought maybe it was a client of hers that had recently died of cancer, speaking to her from beyond. Anyhow, that same day the client's daughter called to say she was assembling a team to run in a "Race for the Cure 5K" and would she like to come with? So my friend who has never ever been a runner said "Sure". In the course of training for the race, she managed to drag nearly every last one of her co-workers with her. Which might not be all that impressive, except that nearly every one of them is over 40 and overweight. Not anymore!!! Now those ladies are all lean mean running machines, and do charity races and runs all the time. This fall my friend is running in the New York Marathon, and I think the whole group of them is running a 1/2 marathon in September. Pretty cool eh?

Very cool!!! What an inspiration!!

That is really cool! Thanks for sharing and providing even more inspiration. =)

Even funnier is that they had T-shirts printed up that say "We're all losing it", or some such (well ahead of Jillian Michael's new show BTW). They sell them to raise the entrance fees. They are all the rage at the gym these days, I've even seen guys wearing them (and most of them are pink or printed in pink).

The lady who is running in the New York Marathon sold shirts that said "Run Jessi Run" which features a cartoon stick figure of her running with the NY sky line behind her. They went like hotcakes, I didn't even manage to get one before she was all sold out, and I went to buy one as soon as I heard about them. Oh well, the good news is that she raised twice what she needed.

The shirts sound cute! Very creative.

I gave myself a kick in the pants today... I couldn't decide what to do at the gym, so I thought about a challenge that my trainer tried to get me to do a couple of months ago. He wanted me to get on the stair machine and climb the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower, or 1,665 stairs. At the time, I very politely said something like, "HELL NO!!!!!"

Today, I thought...why not try? So I did! I wanted to quit many times, but I did it! 200 flights (somewhere between 1,600 and 2,000 stairs) in 25:11! Now my goal is to beat that time next week.

Anyone else up for the challenge? It's definitely a kick in the pants!!! Have fun! =)

If I wasn't so broke, I'd say let's reward ourselves with a trip to Paris and climb the real Eiffel Tower once we've met our goals! I would take the challenge, but no stair machine, and can't picture a place where I'd be able to find enough stairs near me!

My gym as a couple of stair machines, but I don't use them. When I did PT on my knee many moons ago, they put me on that thing for so many hours I wanted to smash it to bits with my forehead! Okay if I can make myself step onto it without going into convulsions, I accept your Eiffel challenge. My next gym day is Saturday.

The shirts are WAY cute. I love it that the guys wear them too.

nottango - LOL! I wish you or I or someone here had that much money! What a great way that would be to celebrate. If you really wanted to do the challenge, you could do one flight of stairs 200 times.... =)

Woohoo, almeeker! Glad to hear you're doing the Eiffel challenge on Saturday. Try not to focus on the past torture of the machine, try to focus on climbing your way to the top of that beautiful tower and the impressive goal! Good luck, and let me know how it goes!