The Little Things
January 11, 2013

Today was a really great run. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

In the healthy living world there are a lot of conversations that are held about staying fit over the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. Filled with food and busy schedules, it’s an easy time to let our healthy habits go. The thing is, it’s not so true for me, at least at this point in my life. When I got to my parents’ house for holidays, we work out most days and eat balanced, healthy meals (with dessert every evening of course!). It’s naturally built into the structure of how we live our days there, so it’s easy to stay healthy. So what’s the problem?

The problem is returning back to my life in January. I’ve been out of my normal routine here for a few weeks. I came back to a house without groceries, and didn’t end up going shopping for 4 days (i tried to eat the meals I had frozen over the last few months). My January schedule is pretty different from other months, and that means my “normal schedule” doesn’t work in this situation. It also tends to be a bit colder and icy out, making running and biking outside more difficult. So, while it’s easy to stay healthy over the Christmas season, the start of January tends to be more difficult for me.

Over the course of this week I’ve tried to fall into a bit of a routine. I did what I usually do on Sundays and cooked my meals for the week (it’s so nice to be able to come home from work and working out and just be able to warm up a meal!), and this has definitely helped. Most of my work outs this week have been walking. While I love walking, it’s been a little less fun because I’ve needed long underwear as the temperature with windchill has been in the single digits or the teens. Brrrr…

Until today. Today is a random warm day in between two very chilly weeks, and it is in the upper 50’s! I bounced out of bed, changed into a tank top and sparkle skirt (this outfit) and hit the road!

The last time I ran was December 30th (oops! How did I go so long?!), so it was great to be out on the road. The humidity was really high, and it was definitely tough to breathe.  I went 2.6 miles, which is the longest distance I’ve gone since the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot.

Picture 1

I did not do any negative splitting. It’s not as bad as it looks though. I continued to run 3 minutes and walk 1 minute. The 3 minutes of running remained fairly consistent throughout my entire run. However, the pace of my walking periods got slower and slower, leading me to the negative split. Not my best run, but since I’m just getting back into my running routine, I’ll take it.

Now it’s your turn to share! What’s an important part of your “healthy living” routine? Is December or January a more challenging month for you? 

←

Comments are closed.