Running Streak 1/31

All ready for the first run!

Today was the first day of my running streak!  And I did it, so already, I'm doing great!  Today was also the first day of my summer break and therefore had two goals: clean and run.  Isaac and I spent about four hours this morning focused on spring cleaning, this is in addition to the two hours I spent yesterday organizing papers from this semester.  At about 10am we divided and conquered, and this is the first time that we haven't been expecting company that the house has been this clean.

With a lofty goal of sweeping months of piled-up old dust out of the house, I still had my heart set on running with my hubby today.  We set a goal of 1.25 miles, and let me tell you, it was torture.  Despite the bit of running I did last week, I felt like I could barely make it through this one.  I can only imagine that the next few days are going to be torture.  I was originally planning to bump it up to 1.5 tomorrow, but now I'm just hoping I can get through 1!

Tonight I am celebrating the end of my first year of grad school and saying thank you to my wonderful hubby who has been so supportive of me this entire time, despite the house being in a constant state of disarray, my hours spent on the laptop, and my constant requests for his assistance as my personal chauffeur.  I'm planning a special night for the two of us.  I can't say more because it's a surprise.  Let's just say I'm glad I don't have to clean the house before he get's home from work.  Let's also just say that I hope these extra calories won't do too much to me and my goals.

Anyway, after a long week of goodbyes and treats to match the sentiments, I write to you having gained a few pounds.  I begin my running streak at 139 lb. and I hope to lose three pounds this month to keep me on schedule for my ten pound total.  

As for the rest of this month, I'm happy that I've been posting in my blog more regularly, but I don't expect to post after every day.  I'll likely strive for once a week, possibly more if I hit a particularly hard run.

As always, thanks for your love and support!

Baby steps

I've ran three times since last week!  The first was a desperately hard half mile run.  And today and yesterday I've enjoyed two roughly 1.5 milers.  I'm proud of myself for getting back into it, and I'm excited to see what this summer brings.

My run today was great.  I woke up not really feeling into it (I'm typically a morning runner).  But tonight after Isaac went to work, I dragged myself out of bed and did a little shuffle out of the house.  I ran a different route (pretty slow).  Then at the end, after I had walked for a bit, I sprinted the last quarter mile back to my house.  Luckily, someone actually filmed that part of my run (see below).

Seriously though, I need to remind myself every day how much I love myself when I run.  And I plan to make it a bigger part of my life once again.  In an effort to start rebuilding the habit of running, I'm toying with the idea of doing a running streak.  Several friends of mine posted about doing it in December (bravo if you were one of them).  May is such a perfect month for running.  Not too hot or too cold, though I imagine that the rain will be a deterrent.  I'm still creating my own rules, but basically the challenge is to run every day for the month.  I've seen online that the minimum is one mile, but I think my body might not tolerate that, so I'm thinking of a half mile minimum.  The idea is that just by doing it every day, I'll build it back into my lifestyle.  I hope then that it will continue through the summer and stick with me when school starts back up again.  If you're interested, I found this article to be quite interesting on running streaks.

This week I have one day in the field and two days at school.  Then I have the next week and a half OFF!  Woohoo!  What a great time to really kick this whole thing off and focus on me again!  This is going to be a great summer!