One Week Down!

So as of tomorrow I will have completed one week of the RW Holiday Running Streak.  Six days down, thirty-three to go.

Things are going well so far.  Most importantly I have run every single day.  The first couple days were rough.  I was super busy and did not want to run.  I wanted to bring out the excuses and talk myself out of it.  Thankfully it was the beginning since there is no way I would be defeated on day 2!  Thanksgiving it was tough to fit in for obvious reasons, for the first year ever I was cooking a typical holiday spread.  I ended up getting things prepared and the stuff in the oven and then I went for a 3 mile run.  It was weird but it felt really good.  The reason?  Previously I would have used the holiday as a sole excuse to NOT exercise.  Along with any other excuse I could come up with;  vacation, being too tired, it's the weekend, it's cold/rainy, too busy.  For the past couple years it has just become a part of my life and I love that.

The Friday after Thanksgiving I was tired from shopping the night before (not crazy late though, I'm not that dedicated), I had more shopping I wanted to do, and the kicker...a puking kid.  Yeah, if that doesn't ruin your day then nothing will.  My son fell asleep and so I ran, only 2 miles, but I ran.  Now, those 2 days my body felt pretty good, I was tired but not much more than normal.  This all changed on day 3!  I typically only work out 3 or 4 days a week and never 3 days in a row, unless it's a rare occurrence.  From the very start of the run I felt run down, my legs felt like lead and I wanted to stop.  My muscles and legs were achy and the last thing they wanted to do was run.  I powered through and still did 2.5 miles but it was not fun, my legs were screaming for a rest day!  This really made me wonder how on Earth I was going to keep this up, especially since I still wanted to hit the gym for some strength training 1 or 2 days.

From the beginning I knew I needed a game plan to prevent injury and burnout.  I seem to have come up with something that works, at least for now.  Knowing the class I wanted to attend takes place on Monday I figured that on Sun, Mon, and Tues I would take it easy and just do 1-1.5 miles.  I was hoping this would allow my legs to rest a bit to get ready for the 875 lunges that typically take place on Monday.  Sunday it was a good thing that I was planning on a short run because I didn't get the chance to run during the day.  Add to it that we were busy and starving so we stopped at Chili's for dinner.  I was so hungry and ate so much and then realized I still had to run.  Not good.  I waited about an hour and went for my run in the dark at 6:30 still with a pretty full belly.  Thankfully I did not throw up and felt ok during the run but after was a different story.  Whatever, I ran and I survived.  1.3 more miles down.  It was extremely hard to not run until I felt like death but I knew that I couldn't.  Yesterday I couldn't make it outside for my run so I had a little fun instead.  While my daughter took her nap I hopped on the treadmill and challenged myself to see how fast I could run a mile.  I have never done that before since I typically go for distance.  The last time I ran a timed mile was my freshman year of high school where I ran a 10 minute mile (and was the second girl finished).  My previous 5K pace put me at just under 11 mins so I wasn't expecting it to be very fast.  I started at a 6 since I have sprinted at that pace before, after a couple minutes I bumped up to 6.5 since I was feeling good.  Another minute and I bumped it up to 7 and by the end I was running at a 7.5!  I couldn't believe it really, I didn't even think I could run at a 7 since I used to think 6 was really fast.  Anyway I finished the mile in 8:37.  I think I may do that weekly to see how much faster I can get before this running streak is over.  Another challenge within a challenge.  Wouldn't it be pretty cool if I could run a 7:30 mile by Jan 1st.  Admittedly it would be even better if I could sustain an 8:30 mile but we'll stick with baby steps.  I did make it to the class at the gym last night and didn't feel like death there either so I must have left enough in the tank.

Today was not fun since I had to run with the stroller.  I had gotten to a point where running with the stroller was tolerable and I could last a couple miles.  I don't know where that ability has went but it's disappeared!  Now I am back to hating/dreading running with the stroller.  I  did 1.3 miles.  Tomorrow I am planning on doing a longer run and actually pushing myself but we'll see what actually happens.

All in all, whether I actually complete the streak or not I am glad I decided to do it.  I have learned a few things in the past week that should help me  always.  The first thing I have learned is that you can run every. single. day.  You may not want to but you can.  Once I started accepting "doing just a mile" it opened up a whole new realm of thinking.  I realized that it is literally a 10-20 minute commitment (depending on whether your running, walking, or both) and then your done.  Hard to say you don't have time when it's so short.  I'm sure we take longer checking our emails.  A mile might not seem like much but think of it this way, if you run 1 mile everyday that will be 7 miles a week!  You can not begin to argue with me that that's not enough to make a difference.

Another thing I have realized is that you need to just get out there the moment the mood strikes or even the moment the thought "I should..." comes into your head.  If you debate, think about it, or say you'll do it later it won't happen.  And then if your like me you feel guilty about not doing it for the rest of the day because suddenly you have waited so long you really can't.  This has been especially helpful with this endeavor because it has been crazy with the holidays and is only going to get crazier with Christmas coming up, add to it the fact we're traveling for Christmas.  Maybe the best part of this has been that I haven't felt guilty!

So, I didn't intend to write a book about this but I had more to say then I thought.  I plan to keep this up barring unforeseen illness or injury, which really is very possible when you have 2 little germ factories living with you.  It seems like it's starting to get easier to fit in the runs but I think that is more me getting used to doing it.  By the end of this we should have moved into habit mode and I can't wait!