August and Reflection

I remembered today that I had not yet posted my August mileage. I'd like to also pause for a second (prompted partially by Meredith) to reflect upon my miles and days running since I started this twice thrwarted journey in April. Maybe some reflection will either inspire me or educate me in my new attempt.

August 1
1 mile, up and down driveway at midnight

August 2
13 miles, ran home from town with Mom, stopped for water at Barbara's

August 3
1 mile, treadmill

August 4
3 miles, Grandma Loop

August 5
1 mile, treadmill

August 6
1 mile, treadmill

August 7
1 mile, courthouse loop

August 8
4.5 miles, around town with Amy

August 9
1 mile, treadmill

August 10
1.5 miles, downtown and back

August 11
1 mile, courthouse loop
(It did take me over an hour to mow the lawn though....so is that a good excuse for skipping the other 3 miles? Yeah, I didn't think so, either.)

August 12
3 miles, across bridge and back, very humid

August 13-16
Nothing...

August 17
5 miles, to Lowe's and back

August 18-22
I moved a lot of boxes in my classroom. That count for anything?

August 23
12 miles, to Lowe's and back twice, loop around

August Total: 49 miles

July Total: 76 miles

June Total: 50.5 miles

May Total: 43.5 miles

Since I started on April 25th, I ran 109 days and a total of 229.5 miles. So, that's something. Does that compensate for my 1 mile again today? : )

Why not?

For the sake of my quickly approaching marathon, and just because I love y'all, I started over my 365 yesterday. September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2010.

The past few weeks, when I haven't had the goal of running daily, it's just been been too easy for me to make excuses and say, "tomorrow." I've barely run at all. This does not bode well for 26.2 on October 18th.

So, in my own true fashion, yesterday, I ran one mile. Real quick, before it got dark. Hey, one is more than zero!

I'm happy to know, no matter what, that I'll be running later today, too.

Decisions

I worry just a smidge about being too preemptively excited, but I think this will be a really good school year for me. This is my third year teaching and I feel much more together than I have in the previous years. (Which, of course, makes a lot of sense. Practice makes perfect and all.) It has been a really busy week, but very productive and promising.

It has not been as productive in the field of athletics, however, specifically running. I'm feeling remarkably almost guilt-free about this because it has been the first week of school. Guilt, and training, do kick back in this weekend though. I'm seriously considering (partially guided by your encouragement) to starting over my 365 now, instead of waiting until after the marathon. It definitely couldn't hurt, because anything is better than what I've done this week.

Maybe on September 1st. There's just something a little snappier about starting on the first day of the month instead of any old day.

Or maybe this is still a bad idea, considering I have lessons to plan and haven't even touched my grad school assignments for this week. And this scenario will continue for the next 10 months.

Re-evaluating

So, Thursday was a busy day. So busy, in fact, that as I was lying in bed, seconds away from falling asleep, this thought popped into my head:

"When did I run today? Wait...I don't think I ran today. I definitely did not run, at all, today. It's one in the morning, my husband is asleep, the treadmill is piled up with clothes, and I haven't run a bit."

Instead of going into a mild panic and scheming ways to run a mile in the middle of the night (as I did the last time this happened), I just thought, "Well, there goes that." I admitted defeat, rolled over, and went to sleep.

So, in other words, I've been issued yet another fail for this challenge. (See here , here, and here.) It's not an issue of physical or mental difficulty; I don't run hard or long enough to be adversely affected by daily runs. It's a not really a time issue; even in the busiest day, I can't say that I couldn't squeeze in one 9 minute run. (Possibly in the time it takes to write a blog post or catch up on my Google Reader...) It's really a priority issue.

I've messed up this whole daily running thing so many time since April 25 that all the special is kind of washed off of it for me. I've definitely reaped benefits from all this running, but to have to start over my year now seems kind of pathetic. I'm still running, no doubt. I've got a marathon coming up, remember? I just wonder if I should shelf the whole "running every day for a year" thing for a little bit. What if I restarted the day after the marathon, with one big accomplished checked off behind me? Could I run every day of 2010? That would be a nice, neat, clear-cut goal.

Anyway, I still love the idea of this challenge and am not (as my husand and probably others do) writing it off as just an unpractical and unachievable goal. Somehow, it seems that the timing wasn't quite right this time. What do y'all think?