I wanted to spend a little time updating everyone about how my personal running challenge is going so far this month. For those of you who haven't/didn't read my last post talking about my May Fitness goals, I decided to run every single day of May. Yup all 31 freaking days! Crazy, I know.
So now that I am a full 8 days into my little challenge, how is it going you may ask????
Well here is proof of Days 1-4 of running:
I'm actually a bit surprised if I must admit it. I have never run more than 5 days in a row, and at the time, I felt that was a bit much for me before giving my body a little rest. And let me just say that while I am "officially" ('cause like this is a real official challenge, lol) at an 8 day running streak, I am really at a 10 day running streak because I did run the last 2 days of April before I started this challenge. So all in all, my body and mind feel great!
It also doesn't hurt when I look at my Garmin Connect calendar and see all this:
I believe I mentioned in my last post, I am handling my "rest" days by running at least 1 mile, but no more than 2 miles. These miles are going to be slower miles which I think my body will appreciate and I know will help assist in recovery because I'm not pushing my body as hard as I would if it was a normal run day.
So far I have had 3 of those days. The first was last Saturday which was the day before my long run. The second was Monday as it was the day after my long run and I felt I wanted to take it a little easy. Finally, the third was today, because on Wednesday I did a speed/interval run that morning and those runs put a beating on my body, in a good way mind you. An easier run the day after is always nice since I tend to be a bit sore.
I have also returned to my before work running! I started hitting the track back up before work last Friday and so far this week have done it on Tuesday and Wednesday. The only time I am going to run in the gym is if it is seriously raining or if it is my short/recovery run day. I actually prefer to get my run done first thing in the morning, so I am going to try real hard to keep it to outside runs as much as possible. Unfortunately this morning was rainy, so I chose to take my run indoors during lunch today.
So hear's to the next 8 days of my running challenge!!! Let's see where it takes me.
I will leave you today with one of my favorite motivational running tank tops:
I love your enthusiasm and focus. I am trying to buckle down. Baby steps I suppose in the nutritional area, like eating breakfast, a thoughtful one rather. I ran/walked a 12k in March and I've got another coming up in less than 2 weeks. I'm not big on running quite frankly, but I like the energy of the events. I was trying to get my friends to just walk with me across the city, but I think it may be down to just 2 of us, and if so, the other one is willing to run a bit of it as well, so who knows ... Meanwhile I'm sticking with 3 days of cardio a week. I really need to try and put something else in there, but it's hard. I just need to plan, and your calendar is a good reminder, if you see it there ... it can happen. Love the inspiration. Have a great weekend and healthy runs. Take good care of those knees!
ReplyDeleteThe smallest changes we make eventually add up to be pretty big ones cummulatively! Congrats on completing that 12K in March! That's wonderful! Good luck with your next one !!!! Running really isn't for everyone. I've had friends come to my races and they get so excited that they want to start running too. I love their enthusiam about it and give them the tools to get going sensibly with a run/walk program. Eventually their enthusiam dies down and the running becomes non-existent and that's ok! I think with running you either love it or hate it. It's starts out hard and you have to keep up with it because you can lose what you've gained pretty fast. So I tell everyone, walking is an awesome alternative! It's a wonderful fat burner and at least you are moving. 3 days of cardio is great! Sneaking in some weight workouts (even with light weights) a couple times of week would be an added bonus. I know it's so hard to fit everything in that you'd like to do. Printing a blank calendar and mapping out a plan really helped me and if I can't get it all done for whatever reason, then that is ok too. I tell myself I am still lapping everyone who is sitting on the couch.
DeleteHey there! Just getting caught up on your recent updates. Wow, you've had a busy eight or so months! Your European adventure sounds amazing, and I can only imagine how thrilled you are to escape from the basement and have lots of natural light. :) Looking forward to reading more updates!
ReplyDelete(I've recently returned to my blog, too. Maybe you and I are at the forefront of a back-to-blogging trend. I would love to see that happen—I really miss the community of bloggers and long-form writing.)
Marsha, I was so excited to see you commenting and hearing you are back to blogging too! I have always enjoyed my blog and have really neglected it. I'm really looking forward to dedicating more time to it once we move. Life has been a whirlwind for the past year. So much has happened. Our European vacation was exactly what we needed and we are looking forward to going back this summer.
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