From Slump to Streak - and the winner of the giveaway is announced!

Abbey L - thanks for the follow!

Welcome to all the new blog followers! We've broken 100 followers now and that makes me feel very warm and fuzzy… :)

I am feeling pretty good lately.

I think I'm really on to something with this "no mile left behind" thing.  First off, it's gotten me running (today will be my 15th day in a row that I've run!)

Before you worry about me 'over-doing' it - many of the runs have been slower or for 'only' a mile or so. I'm not killing myself with speed or distance on days where I would normally rest. The daily run is more for mood boosting, to burn a few calories and to keep my momentum up for the days where I need to run longer or faster. It's working!

When I started the 'no mile left behind' thing (basically a promise to myself to never 'poo-poo' a run again no matter how big or small. If I only have five minutes of time or motivation - I take the five minutes and run) I had no idea how many people would think this was a good idea.

It's been mentioned in blogs: Racing It Off and Cook Train Race Eat and I was even asked to guest blog about it for Words To Run By.  I'm considering making this thing a movement, of, well, movement!

Yesterday the "no mile left behind" thing really paid off. I was to run 4 miles according to my training plan and I didn't want to do ANYTHING. I was busy developing out a project for work, getting my crap together from after the storm and (admittedly) wasting a little time on Facebook. Finally I reminded myself that if 4 miles seemed too much to ask for  - just go for a mile (it's only around 10 minutes). Then I got out there and decided to go 2. Then decided to go 3. Well hell. I might as well just do the f'in 4!

I accomplished my original 4 by promising myself that I only had to do 1.  That's what it's all about. It was a slower pace than usual but that's OK too. No one ever said I had to PR my training runs. Most importantly I did it and I think that without pushing myself out the door with the thought of only doing one - I would've done none. And then I would've felt crappy.

The bottom line is you can't run 4 or 13 or 26.2 if you're not willing to run 1 and the first mile is what takes you to the rest of them whether it's now or later.

In other news - I finally took the plunge, plunked down the money and signed up for the Atlantic City half marathon on Oct. 16 - I'm very excited.

And in bigger news - the winner of the Pam Reed "THE EXTRA MILE" book giveaway is:

cue confetti and balloon drop:

RUNNING ON WORDS! - drop me a line and I'll mail you your prize! Congrats - it's a great read, you will love it!

my birthday boy

And finally Happy 4th Birthday to my son Benjamin. You were a big part of my initial motivation to get moving and get healthy and I love you.

XO
Jen

The Extra Mile: Giveaway

I am back baby!

Operation no mile left behind (I just decided to declare it an "operation" by the way) is paying off. I've run for one week straight! Monday - Monday and that's good news for me! Part of the reason I was able to run everyday is because the "do a lot of miles" pressure was off and i just ran when i could or felt like it.

Now, admittedly, most of those days were mere 2 miler's - in an effort to just do something. Remember in my last post I decided not to poo-poo or look down at any opportunity to get something in.

Well, because of that stance, I logged the most miles last week that I had in more than a month (20 miles!) and the two milers helped me to feel motivated to do my 'longer' runs of 4 and 6 miles. Not to mention that all those "throw away" miles actually added up to 10 miles - exactly half of what my week totaled out to be - truly proving (at least to me) that those baby runs are valuable.

Most importantly with my no mile left behind 'tude, it's gotten me motivated to run again. The pressure is off. If I'm busy and can't get in 3 or more - I'll take 1.5 or 2 and not feel guilty about it and I love that I'm loving running again.

I am right back on track with the half marathon schedule that I'm following to get into half shape for a half I'm planning to do in October. I have two I am eyeing - Either the Atlantic City, NJ half or the Los Angeles RNR half.  I travel to LA often but money is tight so between flight and race fees, it might not work out. I'm going to try to decide by next week (before Sept 1 when both race fees increase.)

AH! YAY!

So with all of this talk of taking miles when you can, not leaving them behind and going an extra mile when possible, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a giveaway!

I've been reading this book called The Extra Mile: One Woman's Personal Journey to Ultrarunning by Pam Reed. WOW - talk about taking miles! This woman WON Badwater TWICE - her second win, she even beat out Dean Karnazes by a mere 24 minutes. She's competed in some of the biggest, toughest and some might argue craziest long races out there. 

If you would like to win a copy of the book all you need to do is be a follower of this blog and leave a comment. 

Get an extra entry if you post on your blog/facebook page/twitter account and tell me about it. 

Give away will continue until Tuesday August 30 and the winner will be announced sometime shortly after that.

Hope you find plenty of opportunities to get an extra mile in this week!!

XO

Jen

PS: If you want to try to win something really cool check out Words to Run By - Sara's giving away a pair of CEP compression socks and shorts!