Three Things Thursday

    1)  Thank you all so much for your kind comments!!!  Sometimes I wish I could find the strength, commitment and courage that I had at 13.   
      
     Retelling my story reminded me to look within myself for what I need.  It is easy on a day to day basis to forget how far I've come and get down on myself for failures or not follow through with my goals out of fear. 
    
    I need to realize how much I have achieved thus far and how much potential I have to achieve even more.


   2)  Inspired by all you amazing bloggers putting in serious miles on the treadmill (and maybe by myself a little :D), I decide I was gonna do a little long run on the treadmill today.  I wasn't sure how long but wanted to get in at least 6 (don't laugh at my long run distance :P)

    The furthest I've been able to go on treadmill before today is 4 miles and even that was tough, 3 is about my limit.  One of my biggest problems is that I'm too caught up in pace and  when I try to slow it down it feels so easy that I'm almost tripping over the front of the treadmill.  So I bring the pace up and by mile 2.5 I'm dying and just make it to 3.
 
So I set some guidelines for myself today:
1) Keep it SLOW for at least the first 2-3 miles
2)  Take a few short (30-60 sec) breaks if needed


Lo and Behold. . . 8 MILES.  I'm feeling mighty proud of myself right now, yes I am :D 


  Breakdown:  Miles 1&2 ~ 6.4-6.6 / Mile  3 ~ 6.6-6.7 / 1 minute break (I forgot my water anyway, so had to go grab it) /  Mile 4-6 ~ 6.2-6.6 I was definitely feeling it, my mileage has been low this winter / 30 sec break~ I wanted to be done, but I told myself to take a short break and see if I could get a few more./ Mile 7~ a bit of a struggle, I got through. I don't even know the pace; I played around with it. / Mile 8 ~ I really thought I was done at 7, but I decided to put in a few 1/10 mile strides at 7:30 (8.0) pace to get to 7.5.  I alternated between 6.0 & 8.0 every .1 miles and before I knew 8 miles :D

I was so salty I smelled like the beach, it was THE best :)


3) "Ridin' Solo" by Jason Derulo is such an amazing running song.  How can you not want to run your booty off to, "I'm feeling like a star, you can't stop my shine." NOT POSSIBLE.  Total times listened to on today's run: 6


Some other tunes from my run:
~ Drugs or Me (Styrofoam remix)  Jimmy Eat World
~ Very Busy People   The Limousines
~  Steady Shock   Girl Talk
~ Thanks For the Mmrs   Fall Out Boy
~ Internet Killed the Video Star  The Limousines
~ Hey Baby   Pit Bull


    And just for fun; LOVE these pics:

The kid's got some determination (he gets it from his mama ;), so what if everyone else is double his size :D