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| Photos from my run on 10/14 at Parc Saint Pierre |
My point in setting the goal was just to help me remember that I want to run! I don't want to make excuses to not run even though there are a lot of valid excuses I could make. It's very cold outside and it's only getting colder. It's getting darker earlier (starting today actually, *see below) and so that limits when I can run since I won't be running in the dark after work. And so on and so forth . . .
There are many challenging excuses to overcome, but if I really want this then I will find the time to bundle up, head out, and run. Also:
The more I run = the more delicious French foods I can eat!
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| Example of wonderful French food - Pain au Chocolat |
SIDE NOTE: Basically Pain au Chocolat is like a croissant with chocolate inside. (some grocery stores like BJ's may carry something similar). My mom and I ate a lot of these while she was here! She definitely loved them because she's now at home rolling dark chocolate chips into croissant dough and popping them in the oven! Of course it can't really be the same.
I'm not in this to lose any weight, but I'd still rather not gain a ton of weight while I'm in France. I'm in it to have fun, perservere and stay committed to something that's not always easy to do! It builds character to accomplish the goals you set out to do - regardless of the silly number attached to the goal. The point is to try your best.
This past summer marks my first real running experience! At the beginning of the summer I ran a mile straight just to see if I could do it. And I did it! Before I had been trying to use the rather discouraging method of "Couch to 5k." I'm sure this works for plenty of people but it wasn't the "slow start" that I was looking for. I understand that intervals of walking and running are great, but it was seriously hard to do that for thirty minutes straight. It was too much for me.
I also stressed myself out over doing it perfectly. Now I focus on running period. I tell myself that it's ok if I only run a half a mile today, it's better than not running at all. BECAUSE THAT'S THE TRUTH. I gave myself freedom in my running while also still holding myself to certain standards. I still want to challenge myself so I don't get away with everything. I'm always encouraged to try harder & do better without being stressed over my results.
I'm still just a baby when it comes to running. I'm not meaning to say that I'm a wimp, but rather I'm just saying that I'm still just beginning. I've only just started.You may even say that I don't run, but that I actually jog. But for me it's running. For me someday I'll have the endurance to run farther & faster than I do now. And that's the point, right?
I've made nice progress since the beginning even though I lost most of my endurance that I gained over the summer. I'm ready to work towards getting it back again. Hopefully gaining some endurance to the cold weather at the same time! Most of the progress really was in the form of my mentality changing about running.
Here I've made an Excel sheet (because I'm obsessed with spreadsheets) singling out just my 1-mile runs so far. Between all of these one mile runs were many other half mile runs & such -sometimes even in the same day because I wasn't sure if I was ready to run 1.5 miles straight. So I would run 1 mile and then walk for a bit and run half a mile. Eventually I began trying 1.5 mile runs & was happy with my results.
I now have 195 days left in France so we'll see how many miles I can rack up . . .
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| From today's run - I'm going to need something to cover my face / ears while I run, brrr it was cold! |
*The "See Below"
Today Daylight Savings Time ended in France. My clock fell back one hour! Woohoo! However: The U.S. doesn't turn its clocks back until next Sunday, November 1st! (wow it's almost November already?). So for seven days I'll only have a 5 hour time difference with everyone back in NC!
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