Same old Same old.....NO MORE!

While I was out running today (more on that later) I couldn't get something out of my mind.....it was the 'definition of insanity'.  I had seen this picture (or one similar) on facebook a while  back, but today it popped into my mind and stuck!  :-)

How often do we do this?   I should be embarrassed to admit it, but lots.  I did it when I was married.  Same arguments and same promises but no new results. (I always hoped though...and true in that case, I wasn't in control as a marriage is two people.)   I have dreams and ideas but I don't change my behaviors and thus I should NOT expect different results.    I've seen friends do it......the say they want change but they don't change their habits.  I've done it in my weight loss efforts and I've done it in my quest to run.

How many times in the course of this blog have I said "Ohh, I want to lose weight SOOOOOOOOOOO  bad?"   TONS!   But then I go and do the exact same thing I did the previous day.....the day that I may have gained.  It's total insanity!    

Its time to change my life, my eating, my whatever!  I've started the process....now to just complete it!

My run this morning......6 miles.  :-)     I won't say it was easy.  I won't say it was difficult....it just was.  

Started out and the first half mile pert near killed me!   My breathing was utterly out of whack and I felt like I was just fighting to get a breath of air.  It was very reminiscent of when I first started running and I had problems regulating my breathing.  I pushed on.....but at about the 3/4 mile mark I realized that I needed to walk for a minute or so to correct this issue.  I walked about a minute and I was off and running again and everything was fine.  I ended up stopping to walk roughly at every mile mark.  Sometimes I didn't need it, but usually by the time I had run a mile my chest was feeling tight and the short walk really helped me grab a full lung of air.

Today I chose to run locally for my 6 miles.  Hmmm....I think for my 'longer runs' on the weekend I am going to try to head to the canal or the rail trail to do them....out and back runs.  I had a map drawn up in my head of where I was running and figured I would end up at my house with almost exactly 6 miles.  

It's a great route.  I had no problem with it.  EXCEPT for the fact that if you notice, on the bottom left....every time I got to that end of the road I KNEW that I was less than a half mile from home.   Notice how many times my path took me up to that point.  That is what I call my 'bailout' points.  It took will power today to not bail out the first time I came back to that area....two miles in.   It took even more will power to not bail out the second time I came up to that point at 4 miles into my run.    But I persevered and pushed through.

The last mile was TOUGH!   I admittedly walked a bit more during that last mile!   I somehow picked up some blisters on my feet and my right arm has rash/hot spot from some kind of rubbing on my shirt, and that affected how I was running.  Furthermore, my mind started to tell me that I was going to get home and NOT have my six miles.  I was becoming increasingly more sure with each passing mile that I was going to be short a tenth or two of a mile.   It made me groan, but I decided that if that happened I would keep running.  There was NO WAY that I was stopping it said 6 miles!  NO WAY!  I would run around the block if I had to.   Two blocks if necessary....but it WOULD say 6.something when I walked into the house!

I got to the front of my house and checked the mileage.  5.97   Really???    I ran down the sidewalk past a house or two and voila....the magic number appeared!  I was DONE.

 
Hot and tired I headed inside.  I rested a bit and then went out and mowed all the properties for an hour more of physical activity.  

What's next?