Monday, May 31, 2010

Thank You

No matter your political views, today is the day to stop and THANK everyone who has served and is serving in our armed forces because without the ones who served, our country wouldn't be free. Without the ones who are serving, we wouldn't be able to choose how our life is lived today. So THANK YOU to everyone serving!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Every Damn Day... Just Do It!

'Scuse the "french". I saw a tshirt that I want. It says "Every Damn Day. Just Do It". It is obviously a Nike tshirt... not my favorite product, but I really love the message of the shirt! Never give up and do it every day. Just do it. Don't complain. Just DO it!

I've been having a tough couple of weeks with running. I actually started to run outdoors, which I love much more than running on a treadmill. I get so bored on a treadmill. I concentrate on the sounds around me and on the time, rather than on getting into a good rhythm. The last time I ran on a treadmill I had three people talking very loud next to me and it was very frustrating. When I run, I run to exercise, not to talk. They say that if you can talk while you are exercising then you aren't working hard enough. Apparently the talkers didn't get that memo. I had just completed Week 4 Day 3 of the C25K after that run, and I was feeling very frustrated and discouraged. It wasn't a great workout.

The weekend after that run was GORGEOUS outside so I decided to give running outside a try. It wasn't so bad. I was originally only going to run 4 streets of my neighborhood (about a mile), but I pushed myself (well, I locked myself out of the house and had nothing else to do except weed the garden while I waited for Jeff to wake up, so I decided to finish the rest of the neighborhood, which was another mile and a half). I did it! It wasn't the C25K protocol, but I decided that as long as I am out running then I have nothing to be upset about. My neighborhood is set up so that it would be a pretty easy progression to keep pushing myself, which is what the C25K does. There are 7 streets that are parallel to each other and they are each about .25 miles long. I run a street, then walk to the next one (1 block), and then run that street. But TODAY I ran two streets together without walking in between, which is over .5 miles!!! I am so happy! I am up to 2.5 miles total, running and walking. My 5k is June 26th and I hope that I will be up to it by that point, but I will still complete it!

The C25K program was designed to make people runners and to reach their goal. I didn't give up on it, but I found something that, when I am running my neighborhood, works a lot better, however when I do run inside I will continue the C25K program. I am actually tempted to see how well I do on the treadmill because it is easier to run on the treadmill, although surprisingly my knees hold up A LOT better outside.

But back to the rough couple of weeks... I started to run with a friend which threw off my routine. Then I got sick, so I took some time off. I am back and VERY glad to be back! I had a GREAT run today, which I thought would be a bad run because I hadn't really run, save for a mile on Sunday, since last Tuesday. Now I am super excited to run tomorrow!

So even if you are tired, weary, or unmotivated... just do it. Every. Damn. Day.

(Sorry for the lack of organization in this post! My mind is not with me today. I'm pretty stressed about a few things, but my run took that stress off a little bit!)