The Journey of 6.2 miles...

So for my birthday gift from J I decided to give in and see if real, actual running shoes would make a difference in my running. I don't think of myself as a real runner, but I have started to realize, now that I have been running on and off for about 4 1/2 years, that maybe I have turned into a runner in spite of myself. A reluctant runner. A short-distance runner. A walk-runner. But still, a runner. Soccer, which I am starting my second season of and totally in love with, has made a huge impact on my running. I feel so much stronger now when I run, and I have more endurance - all of these years of running I have never seen any improvements or changes no matter how consistent I have been, and after just a few months of playing soccer, I enjoy running in a new way. Meaning, I don't just enjoy the feeling after I run, but I enjoy the actual running itself. For a while, anyway.

So I went to a recommended store and ran for the owner who evaluated how my feet hit the ground and then had me try on and run in several pairs of shoes until we agreed on a pair for me.

And then I had a knee injury, I think from doing a bunch of squats on a Jillian Michael's On Demand exercise show while BB napped, so my brand-new-birthday-real-running-shoes sat in their box until last week. But now my knee is now back to normal and tomorrow morning I am starting my first ever running training plan to train for a 10K run, the CATwalk.

My goal: run the entire race.

My plan: adapted from this plan

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1			Run 1.5 m	Run 1.5 m	X-soccer		Run 2 m
Week 2	Easy run 25-30 min			Run 2 m	X-soccer	Run 2m	Run 2.5 m
Week 3	Easy run 25-30 min		Run 2.5 m	Run 2 m	X-soccer		Run 3 m
Week 4	Easy run 30-35 min			Run 2.5 m		Run 2 m	Run 3.5 m
Week 5	Easy run 35 min			Run 3 m	Run 2.5 m		Run 4 m
Week 6	Easy run 35-40 min		Run 2.5 m	Run 3 m	X-soccer
Week 7	Run 4.5 m		Run 3 m	Run 3.5 m	X-soccer		Run 5 m
Week 8	40 min easy	Run 3 m or Rest	Run 2 m			10K !!!!!

So now you all know my plan and if I don't follow through you can mercilessly mock me until I'm curled up in a fetal position in the dry bathtub (my favorite place to have a breakdown) chanting "failure...failure...failure". (Too much www.dooce.com for me :) ).

Seriously though, running a marathon, or even a half-marathon, is like this lofty idea I have - I can't even call it a goal, because it's more of a fantasy of this person I'd like to be. To be that in control of my mind and body would be so empowering.

So I'm starting with a 10K and I'll go from there.