Getting in Shape

So, my baby is now 4 months old and I am back to my pre pregnancy weight, which makes me really happy, but my old jeans barely do up and I am able to grab a lot more tummy fat in my hands than I would like. Not to mention summer is coming, and with the warm weather brings taking the kids swimming, which involves me wearing a bathing suit. I put on my bathing suit the other day and I did not like what I saw. I do not want to be that person at the beach that everyone stares at and is thinking WOW THAT'S NASTY! Now, I could fix this solution with swimming shorts and a t-shirt over top and all would be fine, however the look of my body is not my number 1 concern about getting in to shape right now, although it would be a huge plus. No, the real reason I would like to get in better shape is because I want to be able to run around outside with my children and not pass out from exhaustion after 15 minutes, I want to be able to join the rec soccer league this summer because I really miss playing some sort of sport, I want to be able to play ball on July 1st with my family and if I am lucky enough to get on base, I want to be able to run the bases without my legs turning to jelly and giving out on me before I even get to 2nd and the #1 reason I want to get in shape is the Pembina Valley Challenge.
The Pembina Valley Challenge is a smaller version of the Amazing Race that takes place over September long weekend each year. My sister and I have taken part in this a couple of times now and I am really looking forward to it this year. My sister is amazing and she could run all day, so I don't want to hold her back. I want to be able to run along side her and actually contribute to the challenges instead of hindering. I want to be able to run from place to place so that we can complete more tasks in the allotted time and I want to be able to climb that hill to get to the other side of the zipline without having to ask 100 times "are we almost there". September long weekend is one of the things I look forward to most each year and we always have so much fun, and I think we would have even more fun if I were actually in shape. So, how am I going to accomplish this you ask? Well, my plan was to start walking/jogging on my treadmill now, so by September I should be cruising. So, the treadmill is now set up in the basement. I walked/jogged for 25 minutes one day and wrote down how far I was able to make it. Let me tell you, I am even more out of shape than I thought. It was really tough. I started with a 5 minute warm up walk, then I alternated jogging for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds. Well I got to about 13 minutes and I was having trouble breathing, so I walked until about 20 minutes and then jogged for another minute, then walked the rest of it. The next day, I did the same thing for 25 minutes but I was able to get in a bit more jogging and increased my distance. The 3rd day my goal was to increase my distance by a little more, which I did, but not without consequences.
Now you may be wondering what kind of consequences I could face by simply going on a treadmill, well I guess I did not yet mention that my before mentioned 4 month old daughter was born by c-section. Since I hadn't experienced any pain in at least a month I figured I was good to go. Well just because the wound is  healed doesn't mean the muscles are repaired. That third day on the treadmill I wanted to cry, but I didn't want to give up. I had already started and I wasn't quitting before my 25 minutes were up. So I finished and then it hurt just to walk around the house for the next 2 days, but it is feeling better today and I am going to give it another go. I guess I will just have to take it a little slower than  I had originally planned but I am going to be able to run along side my sister in September! Now if only we could do something about our navigation skills =)