milestone!!!

I did it. Today I ran 2 miles WITHOUT walking. I don't know how it happened. Saturday I couldn't run 3/4 of a mile without walking, and today, 2 MILES! Can you tell I'm so excited. Just today someone asked me how the running is going (Penn Charter, where I teach is filled with runners) and I said how hard it's been and how frustrated I am, and then I come home, suck it up and went running.

I decided that it was time to get back off the treadmill and needed somewhere new to run. I looked up township parks in my area and decided to check one out. The trail is short, just over a quarter mile, but it was pretty, quiet and had just one small hill. So I ran. I have always used runkeeper on my iphone, but I upgraded to the pro version today (free, btw) and found it will talk to me and tell me my time, distance and average pace and current pace. I found this to be extremely helpful because on the treadmill, I am a serious clock watcher. Freeing up my hands helped me to relax and just think about my run. I also found that being able to change my pace throughout the run helped a great deal. On the treadmill, I felt locked in, while outside I could slow down on the hills or when I felt tired, but still be jogging, and then relax and pick up the pace a little on the downhills and flat.

I'm feeling like today really made me feel so much better about being able to do this 5k in a few weeks, and hopefully continue to build throughout the summer so that I can do the Falmouth Road Race (7 miles!) in August :)

My friend Lisa said that effortless runs make the hard ones seem worth it, and I never thought I would have one, but today wasn't effortless, but it sure felt good!