day 1 of run monkey run

to be honest, i could count saturday as day one... my first "cross training" day. i went cross country skiing with julian. that's the kind of exercise i enjoy. out in nature, easy on the knees (until you fall), never gasping for breath but feeling your body come alive. i'm a firm believer that exercise doesn't have to hurt to work. i'm not against pushing your limits and trying new things. i'd never xc skied until this year. i (sort of) took up snow boarding a few years ago. but running? boring. yawn. tedious. painful. gasping for air... i'm sure i'm doing it all wrong.

so now, armed with a specific goal in mind, i'll begin my training. i'm looking forward to it actually. i'm looking forward to a concrete goal, set and waiting to be met. i'm looking forward to sharing this experience with my brother, and my cousins.

i've received advice from many sources...co-workers, my boyfriend, strangers on the internet. i'll post my successes, and my not -so-successful successes here (i'm refusing the idea of failure here, any step i take toward this goal is a success). i hope my brother and cousins will participate in this blog... if anything because typing into the virtual abyss can feel a bit lonely... but also to help keep me motivated. and i hope, in turn, to help motivate them.

i'm roughly following Hal Higdon's 10-K training for novices. and i'm going to supplement that with a book a co-worker lent to me called "Running: Getting Started" by Jeff Galloway

love the monkey running from the cupcakes. truth be told, this monkey would be running straight for them, arms open wide, mouth open even wider. oh the bliss of landing face first in sponge cake...