Miles and Miles and Miles to go...

One week ago I was sitting on my couch contemplating the upcoming week. You see, I had another week off from work and the world was my oyster. What on earth would I do with the extra time on my hands?

I could lay around all week on the couch watching movies. Or I could go to the theater and watch the latest and greatest flicks.

I knew that the upcoming year would be filled with my training regimen. I wanted a different "year" than the previous one. Heck, I'll bet most people were saying that as the year came to a close.

That's when it hit me - why put off the training until January 1? Why not get a jump on the year with some added aerobic conditioning?

So last Monday, it started. I hadn't been to the gym in (ahem!) a long time. OK... we're all friends here, so I can be honest: Last September. Sigh...

How in the world would my body react to this abrupt change? And what would I need to do differently this time around?

Walking into the gym, I knew a few things. First, I needed to take it slow. I've heard (and read) many stories where people start off their training way too fast and get hit with injuries and other setbacks.

I also knew that I wanted to not just be a runner - I wanted to be physically fit. To accomplish that, I'd have to employ weight lifting into my routine. And that, I knew, would add more soreness to the soreness I was already expecting... Yikes!

So each day last week, with the exception of New Year's Day, I made my way to the gym. I ran/walked on the treadmill, worked out with weights, did numerous miles on the elliptical machine, and discovered some new-fangled machine called a "cross ramp."

I bring all of that up because today was a HUGE day for me. You see, on Sundays you're supposed to run your longest distance for the week. I hadn't run over 1 mile consistently... but I knew that I had worked my tail off all week long and was interested to see what I could do.

Now I'm not a fast runner right now... in fact, I'm pretty dang slow. But after I finished the first mile, I knew the athlete in me was waking up. At mile 1.5, I was thinking that I can definitely get 2 miles today. Well, guess what? I not only surpassed that goal, I reached 3!

And just think - had I not decided last Sunday to start this training on Monday, then today I wouldn't be feeling the joy of accomplishing a small but necessary goal in my quest to run a marathon this year!