#IWouldRun500Miles

A few years ago my baby turned 1 and I decided that after 5 years of being pregnant or nursing it was time to get my body back.

I started out slowly - by going to the gym and using the elliptical trainer.  It was no impact and it was easy - 60 minutes start to finish and I was home before the family was even awake.

And then I saw an article in Outside Magazine about the rising popularity of sprint triathlons and I decided that it would be a good way to up my fitness regimen without upping my time commitment.

I loved the training.  I would go to spinning twice a week, swim at 5:30AM twice a week and do a couple of runs.  I was in great shape and felt fantastic.  I eventually did three sprint triathlons and was very proud of myself.

And then my town underwent budget cutbacks and I became a slob again.

How could the two POSSIBLY be related you ask? 

Well as part of the budget cutbacks, the town went to a split elementary school schedule.  And our school was chosen to be the early school (so they can stagger the bus routes, thus needing fewer buses.)

So instead of getting up at 6, working out from 6:30-7:30 and getting home in time to put my kids on the bus for 8:30, I now had to get up at 5, workout from 5:30-6:30 and get home in time to put my kids on the bus at 7:30.

And with a full time job and a Blog?  Well let's just say that I didn't see 5am very often.  Then never.

Suddenly 20 months had by since I'd run and I felt like crap.  So I decided to do something about it.  I started goign to the gym at 9pm after the kids had gone to bed - and I felt great.

I had more energy than I'd had in a year.  It was self perpetuating - I had so much energy - so I had energy to go to the gym at 9pm.  It was great.

And then it was summer and I was running outside after work and I loved it.

And then it started getting darker earlier and I was travelling more often and suddenly it was harder to squeeze in a run during the day because by the time work was done, it was dark.

But the truth is that I CAN squeeze in a run here and there, I just need to make it a priority.

Over Christmas break I took a look at my runkeeper stats from last year...

I ran 366 miles last year over 76.5 hours and burned 38,000 calories.  That's pretty good considering I wasn't even trying.

And since you know that I MAY be a little OCD about numbers, this year I decided to set a goal.

600 MILES!  That's 12 miles/week for the whole year!!!

And then I remembered that it snows in Boston - sometimes it snows A LOT.  And I'm old.  And sometimes my hip hurts.  And sometimes I like to go on vacation and so on.

In short, sometimes life gets in the way of our workouts - and we workout to make life more enjoyable so I'm not going to set an unattainable goal and then feel bad when I choose to live my life rather than try to hit 600 miles.

So I lowered my goal to 500 miles.  (That's a much more OCD-number anyway - at least for me.)

And then I created a Facebook group and invited people to join me...

So will you?  Run 500 miles with me this year? Or whatever number makes sense for you...

Don't set the goal too high that it stops being fun and don't set it so low that you're done by September.

And use the Facebook page as your brag book...

And use the #IWouldRun500Miles hashtag to tell me all about it on Twitter.

You can do this!

PS I'm in Amsterdam right now and some handy calculator just converted miles to kilometers for me.  500 mile is 804km.  I'm so glad I only have to run 500! ;)

 

Comments

[Nikki]

You actually inspired me my Twitter/RunKeeper user friend. I did 440 miles last year, so it's 600 this year...I live in Texas so no snow excuse! #wegotthis

[_Bussetta]

Run Kit run!

[John]

You know, I'd run 500 miles. And then I'd run 500 more. Just to be the man who ran a thousand miles to show up at your door.

Ba-da-ba-da.

I'm really, really slacking in getting out the door to run in the cold this year . . . a year ago, I was waking up at 4:15 and, after walking & feeding the dogs, I was out & running by 5.

I'm still as active, but I'm not running as much . . . and I just don't push myself nearly as hard as I do when I'm running.

My goals this year were to bike 2500 miles, run 1000, and swim 100. I'm still holding onto those, because, in the lead up to a marathon, I'll run 50-60 miles in a week.

Without a trip like #RAGBRAI, where I'd get over 1k of cycling miles out of the way (between the lead-up and the actual week), I'm going to have to start getting serious about pedaling to work.

I'm thinking Mondays will be my heavy day at the gym. I'll bike to/from work on Tuesday (35 miles each way), run on Wednesdays before work, swim on Thursdays, run on Fridays. Then, figure out how to include long rides & long runs on the weekends.

If only I didn't like sleeping in.

[Rhiannon Fieri]

Well, I'm structurally incapable of running, but I will wave my arms around a whole lot, while cheering you on! Maybe those will tone up again.

[Jessie Powell]

How about I just cheer from the sidelines. Much more my style.

[thatsthebeauty]

You know, I think I might just join you on that, not necessarily running wise, but more walking haha.
As I walk to uni/work and back most days and that's about 3 miles. So this would give me great motivation to keep it up over the holidays and when I finish to prevent me getting too fat haha. And I would run it, but then no-one would sit next to me in lectures all hot and sweaty! xxx