How I did it: Okay, so I have a really busy life, but I really wanted to do this. I started in summer because it's hot, and if I can do this while the weather is bad, I can do it ANY TIME. To avoid the heat, I had a choice of mornings before work, or evenings after work. I went with evenings because I like to eat at least two hours before running and loosen up by walking throughout the day. So I started aiming for 3 times a week, you know, not more than 30 minutes, usually a 2 or 3 mile run. It was easy to think about it as oh well it'll only take 20 or 30 minutes, I guess I have time for that." And then I'd just go. Now I'm running four times a week, and I save a long run for the weekend. Sometimes it is hard because I'll work really late or go out with friends, but I can usually still find a spare 30 min sometime in my evening, whether on a lunch/dinner break or right before I go out :)

Lessons & tips: Don't be overwhelmed by the idea of all the little things it takes to go running. Running two miles will keep you in shape and doesn't take that long at all. Save yourself 10 minutes to get dressed & have a really quick shower and that's a 30 minute chunk of your day that you saved for yourself :) ALSO!! I really recommend having a few people in your life who will encourage you to run. If you text someone saying you're just not into it for whatever reason, the best response to get is "well, why not try it anyway and see how you feel." I never stop after I'm out there, I really DO want to run, it DOES make me happy, I just get in a funk, you know? So I have maybe three or four people who do this for me :) Lastly, use a calendar. Every time I ran, I colored in the day and then wrote the # miles. I like this system because I could see that I HAD been running pretty consistently (the binary of running or not from the coloring) and then I could also add up my miles if I wanted to. I don't like keeping track of times and paces usually because I feel like that takes the fun out of it and it's not really my style, but I suppose you could do that too if you prefer speed training to increasing distance :)

Resources: calendar, supportive friends

Jul 12, 2012, 09:04PM PDT | 0 comments | 5 cheers