Running for Me

I haven't always liked to run. As a matter of fact, growing up, I would struggle through the mile run in physical education class. It wasn't fun for me. I wasn't good at it, and I had no motivation what-so-ever to "practice" in order to do well on the mile once a year. Forget it. With that note, one may conclude that I didn't participate in sports either. But I did. In elementary school only though. Basketball and volleyball. But, that didn't require much running, and I lost interest in playing it through the public school system when I entered middle school. There were too many girls, icky try-outs, and I guess I just didn't have the drive. When I started college I realized that being physically active is something that I needed to do for me. Myself. My body and mind. So I started hitting the gym. By myself. I was embarrassed as to how little I could run or for how short of a time I could workout. But, I WAS doing it. Better than not doing it at all. It wasn't until about 2 year ago this summer that I decided I needed to start running/jogging. I was working out, but not enough to get a good cardio. So I did. I ran outside. Probably a mile a day. That's it. That was all I could motivate myself to do. I never thought I would be able to do more than that. Especially with my knees. But, I realized that the more I have exercised, the stronger my knees have become. With the added help of bags of frozen peas or carrots afterwards, of course. Then last spring, I really got on the band wagon with working out. I found myself working out 5 days a week. Not always running, but Spinning, and a little bit of Cross Training(XT). Spinning is great for marathon runners; it does wonders for your endurance! Then came summer. Worked two jobs; one being at the wee hours in the morning and the other taking up most of the day. That left little energy and motivation for working out. So needless to say, my workouts pretty much went down the tube for those three months. But, I got back into it. I was bound and determined to stick with it. I trained so I could complete my first 5K (3.1 miles) Thanksgiving Day, 2005. What a wonderful feeling. And now, I am still running and am trying to train for my first half marathon. You're right. I am crazy. I as well think that maybe I should do some more 5k's and even 10k's (6.2 miles) before I do my first half marathon (13.1 miles). But, some people say that I can do it, and I am going to try. I have 18 weeks. Most 1st-time half-marathoner's can train in 12. So I am giving myself an extra 6 weeks! I am not training to complete in a set time. I will train to finish. That is my goal for my first 1/2 marathon. Maybe my second one will be training to beat my first time. We'll see. So this blog will consist of my journey, my thoughts, my pain (hopefully no injuries), my accomplishments, and most of all my love for running. Running for Me.