Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions: The majority of us make them, even though we don't always like to admit it. Some are kept private, while others are shared. I've decided to share mine.

Welcome to my blog! Coincidentally, my New Year's resolution was not to start a blog, but rather to run 1,000 miles in a year. I'd like to document my journey, and I've also wanted to start a blog for quite some time now, so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to do just that. 

Here I will track certain important running milestones within my goal, talk about cool running gear I try out, tips and tricks for running long(ish) distances, great running tunes, food to fuel me, and many other topics that come up throughout this time that will affect my goal. 

To break it down for everyone:
1,000 miles divided by 52 weeks in a year = 19.23 miles a week
19.23 miles divided by 7 days in a week = 2.75 miles a day 

Now, of course there will be days when I don't run (or days when I run more or less than others), so it'll be easier to go by the weekly mileage rather than daily . 

I'm almost obsessed with this goal because I like when goals follow the SMART model.
S - Specific - you can't get any more specific than an exact number of miles and 365 days in a year!
M - Measurable - see above calculations
A - Attainable - This might seem like an ambitious goal to some (especially if they don't run very much). But to me, it seems very achievable, as I do run 15-16 miles a week already. 
R - Relevant/Realistic - I run anyways as my normal workout, so this is very realistic and relevant for my lifestyle
T - Timely - I have a deadline of December 31, 2013. 

As a mentioned above, I do usually run 3-5 days out of the week. I've been a somewhat "avid" runner since my sophomore year in college at Baylor. After that Freshman 15 hit, I knew I needed to start exercising more. I would casually run the 2 mile trail around our campus, go for long walks and light jogs with my dog, and I even took a running class as my PE credit senior year. While taking that class, my professor motivated me to sign up for a half marathon on campus. I trained and trained and was so excited for that day to prove to myself that I could run 13.1 miles...but when I woke up that morning there was an intense thunderstorm and I knew I wasn't going to be able to run that far in wet, soggy socks...so I didn't end up completing it. However, since then, I have done multiple 5k's and 10k's and have enjoyed every single one of them. 

I hope you enjoy reading my blog and following me on my quest to 1,000 miles!

01/03/2013: Miles run - 4 of 1000. Miles remaining - 996 of 1000