Blame It On The Cold Weather...

Blame It On The Cold Weater...

My kick-off week started great last week.  The weather was absolutely beautiful on Monday when I put on my running shoes and went out to run.  It made it so easy to go out there because all I wanted to do was enjoy the weather.  I didn't run far, but I didn't plan on it either.  I ran right around two miles and it felt great. 

The next day I decided to take off.  In my head I figured I would run every other day, or at least 3-4 times a week to just kind of get back in the groove of running.  However, trying to still be good, I sat and stretched for a good twenty minutes. On Wednesday I was ready to run, but a nice surprise happened. My good friend Audrey Craven flew in and stayed the night.  Of course I was going to spend time with her, so I put off running for one more day. Thursday came and I ran.  It was good and I ran around the same two mile run that I did on Monday.  The problem is I don't really know exactly where to run in my neighborhood yet.  I'm used to my home in Texas where I know every single road, and now in Little Rock... I'm struggling.

So here comes the BIG excuse of the blog.  Yes.. maybe I didn't run the rest of the week.. but it was COLD. I promise! The frigid air of winter for some reason decided to return at the end of March. So this weekend I became a lazy bum and didn't run.  I guess this is what I decided this blog is for, because now I'm embarrassed that I didn't run but twice.

I honestly just hate to run in the cold. It brings me back to the beginning of track season when my friend Ben and I were convinced that God knew when track practice would begin and end.  For morning practice it would be cold and absolutely miserable.  Then throughout the day it would become absolutely beautiful throughout the day! But as soon as 3:00 would hit, the clouds would come in and the wind would kick up to about 100mph and it would be like running into a brick wall. Makes running much less fun then it already is (which during track practice really isn't that fun).  That's how I felt about this week. When I wanted to run, I believe the temperature would literally drop.

Okay, enough excuses. Today begins a new week, and my goal is to run at least two miles every run up to three times. Yee-haw for six miles! Also-- for anyone that knows good routes in West Little Rock.. holla.

And now I'll end with pictures of my high school running days. To make it a bit more interesting.

Me, Nevan and Barbara at a cross country meet.

Barbara, myself, Nevan and Janessa at a track meet.

Nevan and myself at a cross country meet in Dallas at Mountain View. 

PS - How scary is it that I look exactly the same as I did at the age of 17?

Here It Goes...

I know everyone is writing blogs these days, but I feel as though my blog will hold me more accountable to what I want to accomplish.

Here's the goal:
I want to run in the St. Jude's Half Marathon on December 3, 2011.

I realize that the "cool thing" to do right now is to start running, and I also realize a bunch of people just ran in the Little Rock race this past month, but this is my way to really start to train.

I have a background in running. I really do. In the 7th grade I had a friend trick me into joining cross country.  She said it was a traveling class and at the ripe age of 12, I believed her.  The next week I was in workout gear being told I had to run a mile time trial.  I thought I could kill her, but instead I fell in love with the sport. In the next six years I ran track and cross country and loved ... well most of it.  Now many of you may be thinking that a half marathon is a breeze for a runner, but here's the thing, I've never ran 13 miles in one time in my entire life..  In track I was a middle distance runner, ie 800m (half a mile) and 400m (quarter of a mile).  For cross country in Texas, our race was only 2 miles.  A half marathon? That is 13.1 MILES.

My goal:  To run under 2 hours. That's a little more than 9 minute miles.  I would love to run faster, but baby steps people.  So no mockery of the time I want.

So I'm keeping this blog to, once again, hold me accountable. I know only my mom and Hannah may read this, and that's okay.  That is two more people who can get onto me about running day after day. 

And here it is, today is the first day of really trying to get out there and run. There is only 256 days, 9 hours and 58 minutes until the race begins. I'll let you know how I feel about 13.1 miles tomorrow...

For more information on the St. Jude's marathon in Memphis, TN please visit http://www.memphismarathon.com/.


Thanks!