I Declare Week Seven Completed

I totally cheated this week by making my third run on a Monday when my first run was... last Monday. I was planning to run yesterday but that did not happen. On Saturday, I had to take an exam at 7:30 a.m. (for teaching certification, which I am looking into). I also had a friend's birthday party that night. Unfortunately, the nap I planned to take did not pan out and I stayed out until about 5 a.m. and drank too much. I woke up Sunday a) with my cold back YET AGAIN -- my nose is super stuffy and b) with a bad hangover. I had to sleep until 4 p.m. and after that, I had Valentine's Day plans with my family. I got home at about 9:30 but felt it was too late to run outside after that guy in the hood last week. So yesterday, instead of running I ate a cupcake in honor of V-day. Ha. Though I didn't smoke, and have only had ONE DRAG of a cigarette in over two weeks. Yay for me.

Yesterday, a couple of things gave me further motivation to continue (it is strange, but every time I take 2 or 3 days off, I feel certain that I will leave the house, attempt to run, and just utterly fail immediately. Let's blame years and years of smoking and exercise avoidance). I weighed myself yesterday morning and realized I had reached a certain goal I've been looking forward to (sorry, not willing to publish my actual weight, haha). Now, yesterday I was dehydrated and off a normal eating schedule due to the hangover and all the sleeping, but I weighed myself when I got up today and I think I can definitely say I've reached this particular goal. And I certainly don't want to throw it away. I stupidly did not really take an official weight before beginning this program -- plus December, month of pig outs and cookies, was the first month of it -- but I think I've lost over ten pounds. Probably eleven or twelve. Yay!

The other source of inspiration was not as awesome. Pictures from the other night were posted on Facebook and I'm not crazy about how I look in them. Also, as a sidenote -- I wore a shirt that I worried was too see-through. Yes, yes -- turns out it is pretty sheer. Whoops.

Anyways. Today's run was good. The best part had to be when I ran past this tall guy and he loudly exclaimed, "Baby, baby, lookin' good! Work it off!" hahaha. I hope he heard my appreciative laugh. The last two songs were kind of a struggle and there were points at which I was barely running. But overall, the run felt good, especially considering I hadn't run in three days.

I really think 28.5 minutes is going to be a struggle, because I was soooooo ready for the run to end, and I briefly considered what it would be like to have 3.5 minutes left (aka basically another song), and that made me briefly want to die. I think that about 99% of this is mental, though, so I will try to go into week eight with a better mindset -- beginning it on Wednesday, wish me luck!

Also, and this is kind of strange, I am considering signing up for this. It is a "Run for the Cheetah." Now, when you think of worthy charities, you may not think of cheetahs. However, I think I've stated before that I'm not really that into big races -- and all the other 5ks in Chicago look like they'll be giant. This one will probably be a bit less popular. And, I like cheetahs! And the entry fee is less than $30. So I'm considering this.