Reaching New Lengths

Yesterday I woke up wanting to run. Yet I could hear the patter of rain on the tin roof of my father's house. I hadn't ran in a few days, and the urge was overwhelming. I laced up and headed out towards the traintracks where I knew I could get in a few flat miles. I intended on running only about 2, but ended up running 4.

Today I slept late after a partial overnight shift at work, and awoke invigorated--today, according to my 10k training regimen, had me running my farthest distance yet: 4.5 miles. After a 4 mile run yesterday, I wasn't sure how things would go... Surprisingly, it was awesome. I didn't time myself (I want to enjoy the moment, not fight for faster times, not right now), so I don't know how fast I did it, but I felt like I had a strong pace most of the run.

There are a lot of things that are shifting around in my life right now and I've felt very overwhelmed, even depressed at the prospects of change and uncertainty (old habits die hard). Yet when I was running today, I found joy in the structure and control of running; I get to decide how far I go, how good of a pace I keep, and how often I do it. That was what kept me going, and I know that's what will keep me strong as I make my way towards this race.

According to my training plan, three weeks from today I will run 7 miles (and about 40 between now and then).

!!!

Also, I decided this month I will not be weighing myself. I've been getting stronger (I went from hardly being able to do a full girl push-up a few weeks ago to doing 6 real push-ups yesterday with 20 girl push-ups after), noticing a change in my body (my abs are getting a lot flatter, yay!) and overall just feeling good. So I decided to see what happens if I let off the measurements of numbers for a while and just focus on how I feel.

I haven't been good about posting on here lately because it's sort of felt like it's becoming a glorified facebook status. In the past I've posted stories, links, ideas, stuff of substance. But nowadays I feel like all I'm offering are updates on my progress... cool for like, my parents, but I'd like to begin posting again things that are insightful and work my writers skill a little greater.

So be on the lookout, thenextfivemonths is going to be under some construction this summer as I brainstorm ways to revamp my purposes and execution of my plan. :)

I'll leave you with my two favorite running songs right now:

Please enjoy the weirdness of this video. It makes me happy.

This song just makes me believe everything in my life is going to be alright.

(And I don't usually even like Katy Perry! But this song is just goodness.)

Stay hungry for success and joy my friends. <3