About three years ago I attempted to go running with Andrew. We took a nice little loop the whole way around Patterson Park. By the time we had made our way back to our street, I thought I was going to die, and I proclaimed, "That's it! I'm done! I'm walking the rest of the way!" The rest of the way, mind you, was only a block and a half.
Andrew began to laugh. He then said that it was funny that I couldn't at least jog the rest of the way to our house and that I had only run a quarter of a mile. I disagreed. I had definitely just ran more than a quarter of a mile! I was sure that I had run about a mile. Ok, not a lot, but a good starting place for someone that is pretty out of shape.
For the next week, Andrew continued to give me a hard time about my inability to jog more than a quarter of a mile. Finally, in an attempt to prove him wrong, I went to the computer, pulled up mapmyrun.com and plotted out our path from a week before. Sure enough, I was right. I had jogged more than a mile! I had jogged a mile and a quarter!
Long story short, I never went running again after this particular event. I told Andrew I had been traumatized. Give me a hard time about trying to get in shape when I've never been a runner to begin with? Yup, traumatic.
Until Monday.
On Monday morning, I woke up, put on my running shoes, and took a 10 minute jog. I know it wasn't a lot-- about half a mile. For whatever reason, I seemed to have thought this was going to be a good idea. It was a pretty crappy experience, but at least I didn't have anyone to make fun of me or tell me I had to run more. And maybe the next time, I'll go a little further.
You may find yourself wondering what this has to do with anything. I know I find myself wondering that a lot when it comes to some of my blog posts, so I'll try to get to the point of this post. After I went on my horrific and grueling half a mile jog, I was hungry. And hot. It was 9:13 in the morning and I wasn't even quite sure what I was doing up at this ungodly hour during my summer break anyway-- let alone going running! I needed a super awesome breakfast and something to cool me down, but I'm not much of a breakfast person. So I tossed together a few ingredients and made a delicious smoothie. I used to buy or make smoothies all the time when I lived in Australia and it had been much too long.
Monday's go to flavor was Strawberry Banana, but you could definitely use all sorts of fruit for this simple recipe. Sometimes I use mango, peach, or pineapple as well. The key though, I believe, is to use fresh fruit!
Toss these ingredients into a blender--
- 1 1/2 cups of cut up strawberries
- one banana
- 1 cup of low fat vanilla yogurt
- 1/4 cup apple juice
Yuuuuummmy. It was just what I needed after my endless morning workout. And by endless, I mean ten minutes.
Anyone is the same boat as me when it comes to running? What tactics do you use to get yourself motivated to run?