I can see clearly now...

Oh- the sun. I'm thankful for the sun that I've been able to run in the past two days. Sure, I love the rain, but it's nice to dry out and feel the sunshine on my face as I run, in a tank top. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE it. And, let's face it, the sun is the only reason I was able to get in the 7.5 miles I needed to this weekend to accomplish both of my goals for this week. And to think, today I was so close to not even going out.

We had a party last night. Not a rager, but a party where we consumed a fair amount of wine with some really fun new and old friends. And, since I was so busy cleaning my kitchen and dropping off my kiddos with my mom and shopping for the food and making the food... I really didn't eat-- all day. Flashback to college... not feeling so great this morning. But after some delicious doughnuts from the shady place down the street, some eggs, and a couple of strong cups of coffee, there I was, letting my encouraging?? husband talk me into getting out there. I needed to get 4 miles in today to make 10 miles this week, but found myself saying, "I'm going to try for 3, but I'll probably be back early..." To which the reply was, start slow, see how you feel...........

And- I'm SO GLAD I DID! I started slow. Slower than felt right at first. More than once I looked down at my trusty Garmin only to realize I was going too fast, and if I was going to last I needed to slow down. So I did, and mile 1 felt great; mile 2... a little faster and still great; mile 3... what? a little faster and still great; mile 4... a little faster and AWESOME. Wow. I loved that run. I'm proud of myself for getting out there and doing it- thank you Rob. I'm proud of myself for accomplishing my 10 mile goal again this week- I kind of left it to the last day and had quite a balance to meet. I'm proud of myself for getting up and running before Rob went to work on Wednesday- let's face it, it's early and cold. I'm proud of myself for running negative splits today- I generally don't have that kind of discipline. I'm proud of myself for sticking with this running thing all month- period.

My dad and I have been talking about running, getting in shape and being in shape. He's reminded me a couple of times that exercise (any kind of exercising, not just running) is only really fun when you are in shape. And he's right... it's the getting in shape part of exercising that is rough and takes some powering through. But I'm starting to feel like I'm getting it back. It's starting to not really suck. I'm starting to not feel like my lungs might POP when I'm out on the trail. I'm starting to look forward to my runs again. I must be getting back into shape... thank goodness.

It's about to be February... I'm going to keep the 10 miles per week goal for another month. I'm going to add 2 weekday morning runs for a challenge this week. Fingers crossed for early bed times, good sleep, and pleasant weather.