Sunday RUNday!

Well... it's been about 3 weeks (possibly longer) since I last laced up the Newtons. My runs had been HORRIBLE. Like, really bad. So, so bad. And that does not lead one to want to go back for more. But the scale and my pants keep trying to tell me otherwise.  So finally I listened to my pants and went out for an evening run.
You may or may not remember that I love giving myself rules for my runs. Some days it's speed rules, some days it's distance. Today's rules were simple: run three miles with no walking. I didn't care how long it took, but that's what I needed to get done. Just in case I might be tempted to try and run faster than I'm currently capable of, I left my Garmin home. I even left my headphones home.
You know what? It was soooo nice to hear the peepers and the birds. And it was even better to have no idea just how slow I was actually running. I used my Charity Miles App to keep track of distance but it doesn't track time. PERFECT! And I was even more happy to have left the headphones behind because there was a guy playing the banjo on the beach. Seriously. (My town is awesome.)
My first mile felt surprisingly nice. The weather was perfect, mid 70's and no humidity. Most of that first mile is nice and flat. When I got to the little hill that I had been walking in my recent runs, I told myself to slow down and keep going. Up and over I went, slow as molasses and feeling pretty good! The whole run felt decent, and when I started to struggle I just slowed down my pace, but kept running. Before I knew it, I was back home. Finally!  A decent run! Hopefully the first of many. I think for awhile at least, I'm going to leave the Garmin at home, and just get the distances done as slow as I need to.
Do you have any tricks to help get back into running? Have you taken a hiatus ever? WHY IS RUNNING SO HARD?!

Truthful Tuesday

So on Tuesdays I tell the truth. And this week I'm telling you...

I am out of shape. SO VERY OUT OF SHAPE. Here's how I know.

First, I went to that horse show on Sunday which you can read about here. And yesterday... Holy COW, I was sore. Not just I need to stretch this out sore, but real life someone carry me to work sore. Ugh.

So last night I decided no more excuses. I MUST get back to running regularly. And the only way to get started on that is to, well, just do it. (Nike really is on to something with that slogan.) So this morning, I hit snooze a few times. Obviously. That's what slackers do. But finally I dragged myself out of bed, let the pugs out, and put on some running clothes. Which leads to confession number two:

I did not actually run 3 full miles this morning. Due to my still sore legs from Sunday, my many snooze button hittings, and my slackerdom I did not have the gumption, motivation, nor time to get the 3 miles of running done. I started out with plenty of time. But I walked just after mile 1 up a baby hill that seemed huge (note: I'm not fit evidence #2).  At the peak of the mountain ant hill, I picked up the pace again and got back to my run. I turned around at 1.5 miles and oddly enough, did you know, that hill I had walked up and run down was still there?! Shocking. So I did what any slacker would do. Walked it again. Yep it happened. And then I told my lazy self no more breaks finish this thing! So I did. But I was running out of time and just approaching 2.5 miles. I decided to call it a day there.

I have some weird need to only track my running, so I pause my Garmin during the walk breaks. The good thing here is that I wind up traveling more distance at least, which I think helps a little with fitness. More so than sitting on my butt anyway! So here are my results:

Running only:

The whole thing, including the walk breaks:

That second photo is a screen shot from Charity Miles. I highly recommend that app to anyone who likes to walk, run, or bike. For each mile you cover, partners of Charity Miles will make donations to the charity of your choice. They do have a list, so it's possible your favorite charity isn't offered, but it's expanding all the time. I normally run for Stand Up to Cancer, though if I take the dogs for a walk, we support the ASPCA. If you're interested in downloading the app click here!

For my little run/walk today my impact was $0.81 for cancer research. Is that an impressive amount of money? Not really, but it's something. And I contributed by doing something I needed to do anyway. I think that's a great thing!

Just to let you know, Charity Miles in no way compensates me, nor are they aware I'm singing their praises. I just think they're cool, so wanted to share with you readers!