Before Deadline, Under Budget

I broke the 4 mile barrier today. Yes, it was on a treadmill, and the incline was set to zero, but I'm going to take it.

I said in a prior blog my goal was to get to four miles by February. This week I really tried to work on it despite a cold. Yesterday I was able to do 3.85 (pre breakfast) and today I ran 4.05 miles. What I'm even happier about was I didn't plan to run today.

I went to a dinner party last night where I blew my Points allowance for the day away (lasagna, bread, brie, and wine, glorious wine). I had planned for it, working out just under two hours on Friday, and running for 40 minutes earlier in the day. Mentally, I had planned a gentler workout, walking (on the treadmill...it's 32 degrees here in PA - outdoors is not an option for this asthmatic wuss). I put a DVR'd episode of Desperate Housewives on, and decided to run for 15 minutes to kick start my workout.

After I got to 15 minutes, I decided to go for 5 more, then another 5 and so on. The show was almost over, and I was at the same distance as yesterday, 3.84. What the hell, I thought, let's go for 4, then I ran until the full minute had passed.

When I was done I had run for 42 minutes and had clocked a little over 4 miles. A half marathon, which I plan to run in November, is 13.1, so I obviously have a ways to go, and I need to translate that into self propelled (i.e. outdoor) running, but all of that said, I wasn't able to go further than a little over 3 miles and for longer than 35 minutes over 3 years ago, weighing 30 pounds less. So all in all, I'm pretty happy with today. Now I need to keep increasing, both the length and duration of my runs, and add in some inclines.

I'm not there yet, but I'm on my way.