My Name is Forrest, Forrest Gump

2 weeks, 7 runs, 25 miles and I finally have some hope for actually getting into a bathing suit this season.

You see, 2 weeks ago it hit me like a freight train that it was mid-April.  MID-APRIL!  Until that moment I was blissfully unaware of just how quickly summer was approaching.  I didn't like the winter layer I had acquired on the ole' midsection but hey, I was still in sweaters so who cares!  In my mind summer was still off in the distance.

Then one of my best friends got married on April 15th and that's when it hit me.  Summer was rapidly approaching and "the layer" wasn't going to fall off overnight (much to my dismay).  Now perhaps I was in blissful denial for a while since I didn't gain a single pound over the winter months.  In fact the tummy didn't really start to get squishy until after the flu/bronchitis combo I had in January that left me feeling like death for 2 weeks, not to mention the inability to eat for 11 days and the 6 pounds lost.  I think that trifecta royally screwed with my metabolism and left my body feeling the need to store extra "energy" (aka - fat!), only instead of distributing it evenly it just distributed it in one place.  Anyway add that to the endless slew of illnesses to hit at least one, if not all, member/s of my family constantly for 4 long months and the resulting poor diet that ensued and well, that is how we got here.

That weekend of my friends wedding I made a commitment to myself that it was time to get back on track.  I had actually started exercising again on our trip to FL in March so at least I could count that as a plus.  I didn't really run much though, aside for our time in FL.  I did many other things and ran intervals a hand full of times but didn't just run.  Now you may ask yourself why I'm so worried about running.  Well, remember my 2011 goals and the one about running a 5k in the spring.  In order to do that I actually need to work on this running thing.  After a 2 week pause in the workouts due to traveling and the wedding I decided to come back and focus on running.  I laid out a plan to run Mon-Wed-Fri hoping that having set days will keep me consistent.  Any other work-outs would be bonus and I wouldn't care if I ran.  To tell you the truth, nothing feels better after a long run than some yoga!

Well so far so good and over the past 2 weeks I've stayed on schedule, even did a "bonus" run.  I was unable to run Friday because of a concert so I ran Saturday instead and it feels good knowing I'm sticking to the plan.  I am also crazy proud about what I have been able to accomplish a couple of times.  Friday of that first week I did a 4 miler, the longest I had ever run up until then.  The run I feel most proud about, however, was yesterdays "bonus" run.  It was evening, crisp, cool and drizzling.  It turned out it was the perfect weather for a run and run I did, 6.75 miles to be exact!  I was ecstatic and honestly I could have ran more if it wasn't getting dark, after all it was 8:30 pm.  You see I run like a snail so it takes me forever but I get it done.  I know that that is the kind of run that will happen once in a blue moon when the stars align just so but damn did it feel good.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I was capable.

I guess the point to all this is that it's time to bite the bullet and sign up for that 5k, not to mention that there is hope for the summer after all!