Further Stubborness

Helen, thanks so much for your comment on my post from last night - your feedback is really great.

I know I am being hard on myself with this goal, but I think I am still able to reach it if I follow my plan.

Not having a driver's license, I have always been a walker. I can walk for miles and miles without any difficulty (other than the occasional sore feet!) I have never been able to run... even at very slow speeds. When I started this program back in May I wanted to move away from just walking to exercise that would feel more... substantial.

My real goal has been to simply be able to run. Not super far, definitely not very fast... but just to be able to do it for once without wanting to curl up in the foetal position and die.

That is why I haven't been counting my walk breaks in my overall goal of 100 and then 72 miles of running by my birthday.

If I were to count walk breaks, my total distance travelled since May would be:

drumroll please

56.21 miles

... when you consider that of that amount, 62% was run versus only 38% walked, I am on the right track.

At this point, I want to keep to my goal of running 72 miles by my birthday (or... thereabouts) after which I will reevaluate to look at how I am measuring my progress. Is it abirtrary? Yes. Do I still think I can do it? Definitely with hard work.

I'm not going to kill myself attempting the goal. If I don't make 72 miles by November 3, so be it. But after so many months of looking to that date (which is now oh so close), I can't give up now when I've still a fighting chance.

And if I break 72 on November 4, 5 or even 15 - it will still be an accomplishment.

Yesterday, I was looking over some former posts from back in June when I was flabbergasted that OA's old street running route was 1.8 miles. I thought I would never be able to get to the point where I could run that far. Tuesday's run was 1.75 miles and tonight I am scheduled for my first attempt at 2 miles.

Progress is there, no matter whether I make 72 on 11/3 or not.