“By losing your goal, you have lost your way.” ~Khalil Gibran

A friend of mine (we'll call her Kelly), just announced her "100 Miles A Month" goal. As I read her blog about this awesome inspiring goal, I contemplated my own running goals. And I realized I didn't have any anymore! I can run a mile. Now what? Do I really want to either work on speed or distance at this point? Do I love running that much?

Actually I don't like running while I'm running, but do feel pretty dang good after I've completed a run (I am using the term "run" loosely, please don't rain on my parade and remind me that I'm merely shuffling. Thanks). I would like to get to the point where I enjoy running. And truth be told, I do enjoy the thinking time running allows me.

Last night as I prepared to go to bed I told my husband that if I got up early enough I'd be heading out for a run. And secretly I hoped I wouldn't wake up early enough. Since sleep is such a rare commodity for me I have decided that I won't force myself to get up any earlier than absolutely necessary. However, if I wake up naturally early enough to get a run in, then I'd take advantage of my sleep disorders.

As it happened, I woke up at 5:40 am. Plenty of time to get a run in. I donned my shoes and my watch, stretched, and headed out the door. It was hot . . . at 5:40 in the morning. I ran from my house to the first traffic light just south of here. That is exactly a mile. It was a rough mile. Toward the end I was pretty sure I was going to pass out. I came fairly close to puking as well. But seeing that traffic light and keeping my eye on the prize kept me going. I did it in 12 minutes. Then I turned around and walked back. It took me the entire walk back to not feel like passing out and puking.

I felt pretty proud of my run, proud that I ran a mile, and proud that I actually ran OUTSIDE in Arizona for the whole world to see (and really, I was so focused on not throwing up and passing out that I had not a moment to feel self-conscious about my shuffling and all my friends and neighbors that were surely laughing at me nor did I think about all the crazies out to get me).

Then I started thinking about it and realized that I only ran 12 minutes today! That's pathetic! What happened to me running 30 minutes at a time? I did my mile and then just stopped (I am glad I stopped - I really think I was close to passing out).

So, my new goal is to run 30 minutes straight. AND, I'd like to do this outside. I'm hatin' on the treadmill. This means I have to find the time in the early early morning or in the evening, when the sun isn't so crazy hot, so that I can run. This will be a challenge.

How I'm going to accomplish this: The second post in this blog lays out a running program that I had been following in order to run the mile.** But once I hit the mile, I kind of stopped moving forward with the program. I will be using this program to reach my next goal of running 30 minutes straight. I've already done this once or twice, but I really want to get it under my belt this time. It's a small step backwards, but necessary.

* image from http://www.focusaction.com/YourConnection/cardiovascularExercise.html

**Thank you Simon for making the plan for me and for being such a great supporter in my running endeavors.