day sixteen: rocky start, but a new goal

I mistook a date on my calendar and woke up extra early today to attend a meeting at school which is actually tomorrow. So when I came home from my trip to the school, in which I realized the meeting was not today, I crashed back to sleep. Now I'm awake and about to make lunch and pack my dinner for the evening, but I didn't exercise this morning as I would have liked to. But I'll make up for it tonight, for sure.

I've been averaging nearly 3 miles on the elliptical in the 27-30 minute periods I've been running on it. I definitely breach 3 miles when I run for thirty minutes, I make it to about 2.6 miles in 27 minutes. I think that's pretty good. I sweat pretty hard, but I'm not huffing and puffing or having difficulty breathing, which is good. My arms hurt today since I tried the Arm Blaster setting last night (it basically makes the handles extremely hard to push for ten reps every few minutes while you're running), but nothing that is unbearable. My legs feel good. Just need a good stretch.

I need to work on stretching more effectively after my warm-up and cool down. I can feel my muscles stiff the next day when I fail to stretch well at those crucial stages of my workout. I just don't enjoy stretching. I enjoy running, I enjoy my heart pumping, I enjoy the sweat dripping. Stretching is just long and boring and I never enjoy it. But it's important and I need to work on putting more effort into it.

Great news today, though! Two items of information make Day Sixteen a particularly great one (despite the rocky early morning false start).

(1) I fit into two different pair of jeans that I couldn't even button up last year. They are still too tight to wear out, but I can at least button and zip them. I anticipate in another week, maybe two, I'll be able to fit into them comfortably and actually start wearing them again. I almost threw them out earlier this year, never thinking I'd ever wear them again. But I will be able to wear them again, and I'm glad I didn't throw them out, they were nice jeans!

(2) I've decided a physical goal for myself. Not a goal weight, nor a goal pant size. I'm staying away from playing the numbers game. It only discourages me and sets me off track. No, this is a physical goal that will be an amazing thing for me to accomplish and I'm going to accomplish it:

Running in 2012's miniMarathon here in Louisville, Kentucky. 

It's a 13 mile half-marathon, and I think a whole year is plenty of time to train for it. I'm thinking about going out this Saturday for this year's race and cheering on some racers, just to feel their energy and motivate myself to participate next year. There's a regular Marathon also run in Louisville that is 26 miles. I might try to do that one in 2013. I'm really excited about this goal! I can do it!

Day Sixteen Stats:
Wake Up: 9:30 AM, back to sleep, woke up again 1 PM
Breakfast: none
Exercise: none
Lunch: Salad (romaine, baby spinach, carrots, hardboiled eggs, cheese, Tomato Basil Vinagraitte (just a teaspoon)
Snack: apple
Exercise: 2 mins bike, stretches, 27 mins elliptical (with Arm Blaster activated last 10 mins), stretches
Dinner: Shake-n-Bake chicken and broccoli with cheese