Ugh… Running
Oh running – my biggest challenge.
I’ve played a lot of sports in my life and guess what the most common punishment has been across those sports? You guessed it, running. I didn’t mind it so much when I was playing soccer because I was distracted but every time we had conditioning, it just felt like punishment to me. It got even worse in college when yes, of course, we would do sprints to help assist with our weight training that we did, but when it came to practice, if we didn’t win the “game” or that specific designed drill, guess what? ON-THE-LINE! No matter how far you we were into practice, no matter how many sprints we had run up until then, it was always go as fast as you can and beat the clock.
So really, its no wonder why I have this weird relationship with the activity. Right after college, I was so determined to lose the muscle weight that I had put on that I was a crazy person and would run between 3-4 miles 4 days a week and mix in yoga (interested in a good studio, go to Red Sun Yoga in Orlando). But when it would get 100+ degrees in Florida (and I was too broke to pay for a gym), I stopped. Then work, life, etc.. got in the way and well, check out my “My Journey” tab and you’ll see the result.
I did find cycling as a new love (which is still my favorite) but I know that there is no substitute for open-road running. I attempted to do between 6-9 miles a week on the treadmill but I don’t think I’m a treadmill runner and when I moved, things just changed and the running part went to the way-side.
I am really working hard to get over this problem I have with it including working to change my mentality and say that my time on the road is a time for me to be with my thoughts. Russ (my amazingly hunky firefighter boyfriend) has been really dedicated the past few weeks to running in the morning. This morning, I decided to go with him and I am so happy I did.
We woke up a little late, which cut my running time down because I have to at least try and look nice for work :), but after I asked, “Do you still want to go?”, we laced up and hit the road. His neighborhood is all circular and from point A to B it’s about 2 miles – which is perfect for me. During our run, he mentioned to me, “wow, your pace is a lot faster than the last time we ran” (ERIN FOR THE WIN!). I had to cut the loop a little short, unfortunately, but I ran. I don’t care for how long, how many miles, at this point, I’m just happy to say I did it. I was awake on my drive to work (after my Herbalife Vanilla Chai Latte of course) and I’ve managed to keep it going. I still plan on getting to the gym after but event just a 15 minute run in the morning seems to be a complete day-changer.
Here are my results 🙂
