From 0 to 4

I keep thinking back on my journey and how i said that i want to keep going. part of me wonders, what does that even mean??


Almost 5 months ago, I was working out consistently but if you had talked to me about running, i would've blown you off and said i'm not someone who can run. I had put running in my impossible category. I appreciated other people who had the physical ability, but God gave me the gift of eliptisyzing. or so i thought......

Running for me isn't very consistent. I reached 2 miles faster than i thought i would. and stayed there. I felt like i only ran 2 miles forever. And then i finally hit 3. Again, i stayed at 3 for what seemed way too long.

Last Saturday I ran 3.5, and it was rough.


Today, I ran 4 miles and loved every second of it.

TODAY I RAN 4 MILES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the gym last night, but only had about 20 minutes. So i sprinted a mile with an incline and did weights.

Tonight, i was all about the running. My parents are coming in town this weekend, and i knew work out time would be limited. So i wanted to have my 'long run' either tonite or tomorrow.

sidenote-i like to talk about my long runs as if i'm in training (which i TOTALLY believe that i am),  and i secretly want to sound cool.

anyways.......

As we were walking into the gym i was psyching myself up for a 3 miler. I repeated TPG and Sarah's voices in my head, telling me i could do it. I also thought about my friend, Shelly, who is also a new runner and is on an AMAZING journey. She posted today about changing our mindset, and it was pretty much right where i was at.

Sorry, back to the gym.....

So we start running, me on my smallish incline, with my man next to me. My goal for the nite was just to run 3 miles. I'm shocked to actually say this, but the first mile is pretty easy now. (who woulda ever thought?)

when i reached 1.5, i started my countdown to 3. But then i realized that i was feeling pretty good. I started listening to my body and felt like i could go further. it was a VERY strange and yet welcome feeling :)

I ran 3 miles and didn't feel out of breath, out of control, or even hurt anywhere. I felt amazing!!!!!

My thought pattern went a little like this:

-just run a 5k, you know you can do a 5k

-really? you can do 3.3. it sounds so much cooler than 3.25.

-ok you've run 3.5 miles before, what's stopping you now??

-you feel SO good, keep going, keep going

-omg, you've got this, you're going to run 4 miles today!!!!

-omg omg omg you're going to run 4 miles!!!!!!

The last half mile i was grinning from ear to ear because i felt SO good and knew 4 miles was going to happen. Daniel kept watching me, waiting to see what would happen.

I hit the 4 mile mark, yelled out 'YES!' and high fived Daniel several times. Then i talked 90 miles a minute about how great i felt, how much i had just accomplished, and basically just let all the endorphins take over.

I am 2/3 way to running a 10k. WOW!!!! Now i DO NOT want to seem prideful. My goal in talking about this is not to toot my own horn, i share this all because i know exactly what my journey has been. I know how hard it was to run for 2 minutes at one time. I was the person on the other side saying that running is for other people.

Tonight was the first time i ran and felt completely amazing afterwards. I can tell the difference in my physical ability and the shape of my body. I am confident that if a bad guy was chasing me, i could run for 48 minutes without stopping. (i may not outrun him, but let's think endurance :))

i love love love love running! 

i hope it's an addiction that will take me far (hahahahah)! but seriously, i want to keep going....

love
laura