At the Start Line

Returning to the blogging world, but this time on the focus of running.

This is the "run down":

I started exercising in Spring of 2012, after realizing I had all this time on my hands since my youngest (of 2), started pre-school. I figured it was time to do something productive with myself, so this journey started in a local cemetery with a bunch of retirees.

It started with just walking, but the more walking I did, the more I felt like I could run. The music I was listening to I think struck something inside of me. The tempos were much faster than a typical walking speed, so I figured why not start running. I remembered hearing about my friend doing a 5k and she trained using the Couch to 5K (C25K), so I figured if she could do it, I could do it too! I used the Coolrunning.com's program, plugged it into the RunKeeper app and went from there. Low and behold, it was a true test of my athletic ability; there were days I felt like I was going to pass out, especially at the 5 minute intervals! In short, it's now over a year later and I am still running.

In the midst of the running routine, a healthier diet ensued, and I started a food diary with MyFitnessPal then lost almost 30 pounds! I have battled weight all of my life; always feeling like the "fat friend" and never feeling great about myself, but after all this panned out, I managed to find myself and actually love my body! I am healthier and smaller now, then I was in high school and I owe it all to the big man upstairs for helping me find running!

Like all runners though, I had my share of issues/injuries. The first was the shin splints, the culprit for that was downhill running, so I changed my route, then.... Hip flexor twinges. I think that was the most annoying. It was not painful, but it was weird sensations in my hip flexor in the midst of a run that irritated me; having to jab my thumb into the region through out the run got old. Now, I am battling plantar fasciitis! Thank goodness I have a supportive staff at the local running store, so they have been awesome by providing me with lots of help along the way.

Well, that's all for now, I hope to keep this updated more frequently than my previous blogs!