WORLD CHAMPION

Less than a month ago, I reached my first goal of running 1 mile without stopping to walk. At that point, I was running dilligently 3-4 times a week, really giving it my all. Then something happened. My life became more hectic with the end of my semester and the wedding approaching, and my motivation to run decreased. I have been just barely squeezing two runs a week in for the last three weeks, and 5 of those 6 runs have been laps around my yard at night (BORING). I decided to run tonight because I don't think I'll have time, but there were a million reasons why the run was going to suck. I'm out of practice, I didn't drink much water today, I ate haphazardly all day, and I'm really sore from playing tennis yesterday. But I figured a sucky run is better than no run, right? Right. 

So, I get out there, and I'm running my dumb laps in my dumb yard, and my mind started wandering which doesn't usually happen. When I snapped back to reality, I hollered at Dan, "How long's it been?" thinking it had been, oh, 3 minutes or so. But then he yelled back, "7 minutes." WHAT? I was like R U FRICKEN KIDDING? That's awesome! I didn't feel winded at all, and my body didn't feel tired or heavy. I joked "What if I could run the entire 20 minutes without stopping?" Because that is my second goal. The longest I've run without stopping is about 10:45.

I started feeling a little winded at around 11 minutes. I hadn't given up at 15. Even when my shoe came untied. I was starting to really feel tired at 17 minutes, but I was like "It's only 3 minutes." Which made me laugh, because I can still remember how big of a deal it was the first time I ran for 2:45 without stopping. 

And you know what? I DID IT!!!!! I just ran for 20 minutes without stopping for a walking break. And I didn't feel awful at the end! I have felt worse at the 1/2 mile mark then I did after running non-stop for 20 minutes today. I am so excited. CHAMPION! I slowed my pace down a little bit, which was the reason for my success, but I didn't have any landmarks to time myself against to make sure I stick to that pace in the future. My guess is that instead of an 8:50 mile, I was running around a 9:30 or 10 minute pace. Which is perfectly fine by me. I think it's better to run continuously for a longer time than to run faster but start and stop. 

So that's two goals down. My next goal is to run for 30 minutes without stopping, and from there I will work on shaving time off my miles. 

I. AM. AWESOME. 

Slacker

I have been seriously slacking on my running the past two weeks. It's ironic that I was motivated when it was 9 degrees out, but now that the weather is beautiful I can't get my butt out there. I want to run 3 days/week minimum, but I'd rather run 4. Last week and the week before I only ran 2 days each week. Boo! I have been really busy with school, but I have to get it together because everything seems more manageable when I'm running on a regular basis. Yeah mental health!
I have been getting a lot of exercise other than running. Dan and I went on a bunch of long walks last week, and we hiked Hadley on Saturday. But it's not running, and I'm quickly learning that running consistently is the key to it not totally sucking. The running that I have been doing is later at night and laps around our yard. Which is boring as hell, but our neighborhood is not safe to run in at night because there are no street lamps on the route I take, and the two other roads that I could run on are high traffic. I amuse myself by making Dan sit in a lawn chair in the middle of my loop and telling him the Others are coming each time I pass him. THE OTHERS! (I just started watching lost on hulu. OMG)
Today I went out on my regular route for the first time in two weeks, and it was tough. I reluctantly made it to that mile without a walking break, but it hurt. My legs are still a little bit tired from hiking Hadley, and I'm just plain out of practice. The good news is that I'm determined to be back on track no matter how crabby I feel about going out there.
You may have heard that my birthday is Saturday. Sigh. I'm going to be 25. 25 is no joke. That's it, it's over. I'm not a kid or a teenager or a youngster of any sort anymore. I'm firmly in the "adult" category. You know that 18-24 category they always have on surveys? I've always thought that was the BEST ONE, and soon I will be kicked out of it. I've almost come to terms with it, though. Almost. I've sculpted my ultimate dream weekend (well, the dream weekend of a college student splitting bills with a substitute teacher): Friday: party, then Dryer show (which I'm super excited about!!), Saturday: dinner and a movie with Dan, Sunday: hiking Buck mountain. It's going to be amazing.
Now I must go to my math-4-dummies class where I will do my reading for US History while rolling my eyes at and judging my classmates.