Trying to keep up...

With the training, that is, because I'm obviously not great at keeping up with the blog...

My longest run so far has been 5 miles, which, let's be honest, is the furthest I have ever run in my LIFE. So YAY!

Senior year of college my roommate and I decided to "run" to the Colvin center from our apartment to work out. We made it about 3 minutes before we had to take a walk break. HOLY out of SHAPE! Needless to say, I'm pretty damn proud of that five miles. And not only was it five miles, but it was five miles, at 5:45 a.m. on a SATURDAY, on a hilly course, and I DID NOT STOP TO WALK!!!!

Last week I had SO much going on that I couldn't make the group runs, but I ran on my own one evening and did a pretty solid workout.

I was out of town this weekend, but I think my swimming, tubing and jumping on a water trampoline (all with 6 kids under the age of 10), more than qualified as my workouts this weekend.

It's Monday again which means that tonight is a group run at 5:30, but the news this morning said that the temperature at 5 p.m. would be 105 DEGREES, so I've already made the executive decision to run on my own tonight. On a treadmill. In the air conditioned gym. Call me a wuss if you want, I'm okay with it.

My roommate and I are also starting P90X this week...ohhh man. Trying to prepare myself for not being able to move due to soreness.

My newest inspiration: Adidas poster that says, "My short runs used to be my long runs."

Bring on the half.

First Group Run = Success

Saturday morning I participated in my first group run with Runners World Tulsa and it was so much better than I have anticipated! I met a friend to run with and it made it go by much quicker having someone to talk to while I ran. I've never been a big fan of running with other people, but I realized how encouraging and motivating it can be. It's a lot harder to say "I need a break" when you run with a partner than when you're alone. I'm looking forward to making more "running friends" now!

Tonight is group run #2, and I'm a little more nervous about this one. I think the heat index is about 105 today, so that 5:30 sunshine is going to be pretty tough on us, I have a feeling. Hoping I make it through...

Rough week

Training was tough this week! Ran about 5 miles in the last couple days, but my hips are giving me the usual trouble. You know, painful burning about a half mile in, only increasing as I go...something to look forward to on this journey.

First group run is tomorrow morning at 6:45 a.m., which I'm actually really looking forward to! It's so much easier to run in a group than getting stuck doing it alone. Excited to meet my run leaders and fellow group members...and to run a fun new route to start off my Saturday!

Let's do this.

Day One

There's a chance that nobody will ever see this. (Unless I decide to post it on Facebook, which, let's be honest, is probably inevitable. Because even as much as no one cares about what I'm blogging about, there's still a chance they'll be polite enough to click on my pathetically unenticing link and hopefully, at the very least, throw out a few words of encouragement of which I will be in desperate need of throughout this journey.)

That said - I've decided to run a half marathon. Which sounds absolutely absurd coming out of my mouth. Mostly because...I don't run. I'm terrible at running - my hips start hurting after a couple of days (I'm like an 80-year-old woman) and I get horrible shin splints(both of which I'm likely to complain about). I get out of breath easily, I hate the heat, I've never been even remotely athletic (Unbeknownst to me until I didn't make the 7th grade basketball team and heartbreakingly sobbed of embarassment for hours. Years later my mother would tell me she was not all that surprised when I didn't make the team, as I was pretty much terrible in my elementary years in the "Optimist Basketball League". Optimist. Beauty in irony, right?) Needless to say, running has never been my forte'.

But I, like many others before me, put on a few pounds in my college years, and another couple since I graduated last year. And I, like many others, have told myself over and over again that "today's the day!" I'm going to start working out and eating right, and yet, somehow that keeps turning into tomorrow. And as someone with low will power, I need this goal to get me motivated and to get started in the right direction to keeping up with a healthy lifestyle. I also need this blog. So I can share with everyone what and how I'm doing...so I can be held accountable. So I can't quit. Which means, today, really is "the day." Because I've signed up for the Route 66 Half Marathon, and I've enrolled in the "Runner's World" training group, and tonight I will run my first three miles of this five-month training program, and according to the running schedule, the first of about 500 total miles by November. WHAT!?!? 500??? Couldn't I just run the 13 and call my goal complete? Kidding....

-Hayley