sheeee's back!

So, as you may have gathered by now, the beginning of the most overwhelming semester of my academic career was probably not the best time to start a blog.  Six months after my one and only post, I figure it's time to start this thing back up and to revamp a little so I might actually be inclined to write something occasionally.

(not me)

Instead of focusing only on new things and experiences (of which, admittedly, I have probably had several since I started this pitifully neglected blog, but which I was too lazy to write about), I'm just going to write about things I feel like writing about.  Luckily, one of the things I am likely to want to write about a LOT can tie this together and make it something of a goal-achieving-fitness-type blog, because... I am now calling myself a runner!

I've started the Couch-to-5k program several times in the past two years (because there's nothing like getting together with a seven-days-a-week runner/mutiple-marathon-completer to inspire you to get fit), but I've never gotten very far and have had a lot of trouble breaking the run/walk cycle.  I ran a few times this May, but then I got really busy doing the Harrower opera workshop down in Atlanta during June and fell off the wagon again.  Then, on the last day of June, something changed.  I went out for a "run," which for me had always meant some sort of combination of walking and shuffling/trudging, and I decided on a whim to try slowing down and seeing how far I could actually run.  And I ran a mile.  Without stopping.

Apparently the effort made me lose my mind, because since then, I've been running 4-5 days a week, reading Runners World articles like a woman possessed, logging my runs on mapmyrun.com every day, and I've had a blast doing it.  I even got new shoes (Saucony Hurricane 10s), which I adore and which are saving my grateful shins from my overpronating feet.  Arguably, July might not be the best month to start running when you're in Georgia, but I figure that this means that by the time the weather is tolerable again, I'll be a REAL runner and I can actually enjoy running 4 or 5 miles on crisp autumn mornings while looking at the trees and other picturesque stuff.

So far this month, I've run over 26 miles (thanks, Map My Run), and this morning I had my first 2.5 mile run -- which was actually a ton of fun!  I had to get up at 7:00 to beat the heat, unfortunately, as I'm in Augusta and managed to come the week that temperatures have been getting to 100 by midday with humidity to match.  (The Weather Channel says that the heat index today is supposed to be 110.  Yeah.)  It was already in the mid-80s by the time I got out the door this, but it wasn't unbearable and  it was definitely nice to go a little earlier than usual because I saw lots of people biking and walking their dogs, which was nice.  I ran down to Lake Olmstead, which was perfect because it was almost pretty enough to distract me from the fact that I was going farther than I'd ever gone and that my ran ended with a 3/4 mile incline.  That part was definitely not cool, but otherwise it was a great morning.

Lake Olmstead

In short, I've caught the running bug.  I'm planning on running two 5ks in the fall, Hoosiers Outrun Cancer on Sept. 18 and the Jill Behrman Run for the Endzone on Oct. 23, and my long term goal is to run the IU Mini Marathon (that's 13.1 miles, folks) at the beginning of April.  I'll be honest, it's so shocking that the 5ks are even feasible that I can't let myself start thinking about what the half marathon would actually entail, but I figure I've got plenty of time and there's really no reason why I shouldn't be able to do it.  I've wanted to really start running for so long now that the thrill of actually getting out and doing it every day might actually get me there!  I have to say that when you're coming from nothing, even tiny milestones like running two miles make you feel so superhuman that you want to run around telling everyone how awesome you are.  Especially since I'm not really particularly awesome and I doubt that people at the grocery store feel like hearing about the unthinkable two and a half miles I just ran, I figure this blog is the perfect place to get some of that excitement out there.  Congratulations, readers.

Anyway, that's all for now, but I'll post again soon.  Really.  :)