A Goal Achieved!

I checked something off my 24 before 25 list today and I'm SO proud.

I ran 5 miles!  Straight.  It took me 50 mins and 15 secs.


I never thought I'd be a runner.  I was overweight most of my life.  When I moved to a new place without  friends,  money, and roommates I hated,  I needed something to do that got me out of my house and didn't cost anything.  I started running.  Combined with a major reduction in calories, I lost a lot of weight.  About 40 pounds.  Today I feel much better about myself, and my self-esteem is dramatically better.

For about two years, I ran two miles 4-5 times a week.  Then I started increasing it to three miles.  I felt really proud of that.  I ran a few 5k races, which were really fun.  My running tapered off when I graduated college, but I put a few pounds back on and wanted to get back into the groove of it.  So when I put together my 24 before 25 list, I wanted to include something that seemed like a lofty but attainable goal.  I chose five miles.

The last couple of months, the days have been short and the weather has been cold so I've been treadmill running.  It's boring.  So boring.  I knew the hardest part of making progress would be mental.  Although my body felt fine after two or three miles, my brain was bored and anxious to quit.  But I've finally discovered something that made it tolerable- intervals.  I do five minute intervals usually.  I ease into my run with five minutes at 5.5 mph, then do 5 minutes at 6 mph, then five at 6.5 mph.  I alternate between those three depending on how my body feels.  After the first two miles, I find that my body doesn't feel any more tired and so sometimes I'll push myself to six or seven minutes at the faster pace.  Now, instead of looking down and thinking "I have another 20 mins of running left!" I think "I have 4 more minutes of this".  I've read about the technique in magazines and thought it sounded silly, but trust me-- it works!

It is with great pride that I completed this today.  I felt great when I finished.  I wonder how much farther I could have gone.  Now that I've achieved this goal, I'm starting to think about a 10k!