So We Have This Goal...

Run.

That is all that my mom and I have to do to meet our goals.  It sounds so simple, so easy, I mean children do this on a daily basis.  So why would we make something so simple our big goal?  It is simple: Run.  A half-marathon this September with family and friends cheering you on.  Maybe it was a crazy dream goal we both wanted to reach for at one point, but the moment the fees were paid the deadline was suddenly set in stone.  So now all that is left is to get out there and do it.

Now this isn't day one of running or some spur of the moment decision.  This began when we both decided it was time to get healthy and get active.  We have been at it for a little while now, and I would love to share how we are doing.

When we first started we were only running one mile and it was SLOW.  Our first run was just over a mile and just under 14 minutes for an average pace.  We probably could have walked just barely slower than we "ran" to be honest.  But we did it, we got out and we ran and that was something that made us both proud.  Since this first day we have been running anywhere from three to four days a week for nearly two months!  Now we are running between 3 to 4.5 miles and our pace sits in the 11 minute per mile range.

One of the fun things we have taken to doing has been to track our running progress.  Mom uses an amazing watch that times us, tells our pace, our distance, and calories burned. It is a very cool piece of technology, after so many runs she will upload this information and send it to me to mess around with.  Since I am going for a degree in Business I thought this information would be a great way to practice with Microsoft Excel.  I keep track of our distance and average pace on a graph so we can watch our progress as it unfolds.  On top of this I have it set up to give the average pace, average distance, and total distance over all of our runs.  It is always motivating to see the week to week progress and know just how far we have come since that first run!