Progress

It has been a while since my last post - today is a good day to start back up. . . 

I went to bed last night mentally prepping for a nice long run in the morning-jamming out to Bruce Springsteen getting ready for his concert!!! I woke up and was ready to go....sort of...

• I woke up and found that all of my running shorts were dirty... not a huge problem, I can wear soccer shorts
• Soccer shorts don't have convenient pockets for keys or ipod... so I had to dig out my ipod armband, that seems like such a pain now that I've been spoiled with shorts that have pockets!! 
• Get ipod ready and find out my headphones don't work anymore... great! Very happy I've been running with out my ipod occasionally- before, if my ipod died, so did I
• Put on my shoes, tie my key to my short strings, and out the door
• Run down the street and want to turn around soooo bad, my legs haven't felt this tired in a long time, for no apparent reason
• So definitely off to a great start to a great start! :) I decide to push through my tired legs and determined to fit in this run. I am so happy I did.

Lately I've been wondering if I've really made much progress throughout the training, which might sound crazy. While on my run today I realized I have come a long way. There was something about my run today, even though it wasn't the furthest distance I've run, not even by half, but I felt a sense of accomplishment. Maybe it was the fact that even after my morning started far from perfect I was still out running. I know 4 months before, if any of the above happened, there was no way I was going out on a run. Maybe it was to knowledge that the distance I was carefree running today, was such hard work a year ago when training for my first half. Whatever it was, as of today, I am happy to have felt the progress of all this training! 

Speaking of progress---August Overview:

• January I ran total of 32 miles- August was 88! 
• Longest run 18 miles- first 13 I did on my own and then Aly rode her bike next to me for the last 5 miles, felt great after
• Ran in Muskegon over Labor Day. . . another view of Lake Michigan :) 
• Registered for the Chicago Half Marathon, which is this weekend
• Being on a Student Committee for school- our Fall Social is the FireFly Run next weekend...smart planning me-I have the Newton Ready 20 miler the next morning
• In hopes to continue running after October 7 I registered for the Hot Chocolate 15k in November

 Overall, it has been a great month and I have much to look forward to--Thank you to everyone who has continued to support me through this progress!