Have I found my stride?

This month has been full of lots of ups and downs with the ol' weightloss thing. Just a word of advice... don't let your boss get fired in the middle of the month when you are trying to watch your eating. Let me tell you... the "down" part of this month has been learning how to balance being extremely busy at work and finding the motivation to go to the gym after spending all day stressed out... and now I have to go home and find something healthy to eat? Yeah Right. The "up" part of the month has been when the hubster decided it was time to buckle down and loose the last 30 pounds (he has already lost 50 this year). It makes it a tad easier when you have someone holding you accountable, unless he is going through a rough couple of days and doesn't want to work out either. You all know me by now... all I need is a glimmer of an excuse and I'm done.

Part of the hubby's workout plan is a 20 minute treadmill workout that has him doing lunges, walking, jogging and different speeds and inclines. I stand behind him laughing at hard he is having to work. Yeah... about that, he doesn't appreciate it much and decided to surprise me the other night on our "walk" with his workout. Over the last month we have been taking walks late at night, usually after dinner so we aren't sitting there like bumps on a log watching TV and having our yummy dinner find permanent residence in fat places. Every few weeks we would substitute our walks for a run. Let me explain how my run is... its more of a fast walk in a jogging motion. Literally, I could walk faster than what my run/jog is. I will jog for 30 seconds and walk for 90 seconds while he will jog for 90 seconds and walk for 30 (totally opposite for me). He will jog with me for the first 30 and then run ahead and loop back and so forth until our 30 minutes. .... Which is what I thought was going to happen Tuesday night. We start off with our 5 minute warm-up, which I might add had already killed my legs before we even really started. Usually the hubby will wear a 20 pound weight vest which slows him down to my speed, which he left at home Tuesday night. Anywho... first off, a 2 minute jog. Doesn't sound like a big deal right, unless you are used to only going for 30 seconds which was followed by 2 minutes of lunges. After the dreadful lunges was a fast walk and then MORE lunges! What?!?! Are you kidding me? By then we had reached a small decline and was to slow run/jog down which should of been a piece of cake if my legs weren't already jello (and just to be honest for the record, i had to walk down the decline). We then fast-walked up the hill.. down the hill.. and then back up the hill, well, close enough to the schedule. We got into his parents neighborhood and it was a "do what you can" which mine is alot more walking then jogging but I tried... kind of. Then then inspiring hubby asks... "Do you have one more 1 minute burst" which i replied with a "well... why not". And this is where it gets really cool. I start off with what could be considered a slow run for most people... and it was somewhat of a shallow downhill... but it felt GREAT! My hurting legs and exploding lungs... still there but not really holding me back. He only had us do a minute and I was a little disappointed to slow down but didn't want to push myself into puking, which probably would of been closely followed.

Can this be true... have I found my stride? Was my slow jog that is faster than a speed-walk holding me back? I am actually very interested in finding out and looking forward to our next run.

(Oh.. and also for the record.. during our cool down after our minute burst, my little toes went numb. And we had to then walk back the 2 miles to our house which was less than a fast walk but more than a leisure walk).