Run for Your Life

"Run for your life. Running and fitness should be lifelong pursuits. It's easy to be fit and healthy when you're in your twenties. It begins to take more effort when you're in your forties. And it can get downright challenging when you move into your sixties and beyond."

This is a quote found in our running book, the part that strikes me is the easy to be fit part when you are in your twenties. I'm 25 and can barely touch my toes, pretty pathetic. I spend a lot of time pointing fingers at reasons why I am in the shape I am in -- I had a rough patch of health, I eat when I'm stressed, I'm on my feet all day and have tight muscles in the result of it, my job is stressful, and so on and so forth. It's easy for me to come up with all the excuses for why I am in the shape that I am in, and still do nothing about it. That changed when Nick and I married in April. I don't know why all of a sudden my urge to exercise has kicked in, but maybe since we've been married and living together, I have thought about my life in a different perspective. I am no longer living it for myself, but for my husband and my future children. And my health can either remain stagnant, or decrease from this point, if I don't start to integrate some kind of exercise into my daily life -- last time I checked I am not going to get any younger -- so why not start living younger now, why I still can?  I don't want to reach my 40's and think, "Dang, why didn't I start when I was 25?" and regret not taking advantage of my younger body. I want to feel like I am 25 and I want to be able to live an active life with Nick as newlyweds and as future parents (NOT PREGNANT, thinking ahead of time). On top of learning to conquer my ungraceful running style and completing a 5k, this is one of the reasons I run. Not to prove to the world that I can run, but for my health, for my husband, for my future children, for me!  

On a side note, we had a great run tonight! Our schedule was a little goofed up due to Nick working all day yesterday and having plans with friends last night, but we used yesterday as our "day of rest" and ran today. Which means we will run tomorrow as well! I actually did not feel like running tonight (after working 14hours) but, when I came home from work, Nick had his running clothes on, which helped put the motivation into drive, and then as I was complaining about my knees hurting and a sore lower back he said "Well if you don't finish tonight, do you mind if I continue on?" which was a bigger push for me because he had more determination tonight than I did, and it kept me going! That's why we're a great pair :). Our 1 minute runs with 2 minute walk intervals were really smooth tonight and we were able to hold a conversation through a lot of the run (tip from runners world, talking while running, not out of breath, is a great sign that you running at a pace you need to be at). I feel like we might be able to push ourselves a little bit harder but I don't want to over work ourselves in our first few weeks of getting into a running routine. Tomorrow we switch it up where I believe we start running 2 minutes, walk 1 minute. I think with our first week behind us, we can do it! Here's on to week 2!