“Me not working hard? Yea right, picture that with a Kodak”

Tonight I fully intended on blogging about something completely different. But then I got sidetracked and before I sat down to start typing I remembered that I needed to look at my running playlist to try and figure out how fast I’m running. (Yes, I realize it’d be just as easy to wear a watch.)

I run after work. I have a route that is 1.5 miles. I normally don’t run with music but my last two runs I decided to give it a try because I found some music that I thought would motivate me. And as a side note, I generally don’t run to music because then I can’t hear myself breathe. If I can’t hear myself breathe, I can’t try and keep it controlled. Running to music was a big test for me. Yesterday it was okay. Today was even better. I’ve found that in a way it’s helping condition me because I’ll be able to stabilize my breathing under the harder circumstances. Okay, so now back to my main point. (Believe it or not there is one!). As I was saying, I have my route. Yesterday I noticed it took my to about 3 songs and the start of the 4th when I hit a “marker”. If I had to guess I’d say it’s about 1.25 miles into the run, maybe a smidgen more. Well TODAY I hit that marker while the third song was finishing up with about 10 seconds or so to go. THEN the 4th song came on. When I pulled up my iTunes playlist and did the math… it appears I ran 1.5 miles in no more than 13 minutes… which would mean that I ran roughly a 9 minute mile and a 4 minute half mile. Or an 8 minute mile and a 5 minute half mile. Whatever the case may be, that means I’m running significantly faster than I thought I was. That also means that I’m getting stronger with my running. PROGRESS!!!

When I started running this route about 3-4 months ago, I was running it infrequently and (barely) in about 20 minutes. To think that now I’m running it in 13?! I feel like I didn’t do the math right! I guess it just goes to show what hard work, determination, and lots of support can do for a person when trying to accomplish goals. It certainly hasn’t been easy, but my motto has been “Slow and steady wins the race”.

Next up I’m going to start running a 2 mile run once a week in addition to running 1.5 miles the other 4 work days. Eventually I’d like to be running the 2 mile run twice a week. And then finally I’d like to work my up to running 3 miles twice a week at minimum. I know that is so far away. But with practice… why can’t I get there? Motivated? Why yes, yes I am.

It also seemed fitting that I titled this with the opening lines to my opening running song.