Amy’s run Friday: 3.5 miles on the treadmill; Saturday, back in DC for 3 miles on a familiar route to the White House (Week 1 = 22.5 miles)

I have eased into this 1,000 mile journey.  I haven’t pushed beyond 3 miles when it hasn’t felt right or wasn’t fun.  I’m training my body and mind to hit the streets day after day after day – for the inevitable long, not-so-fun runs.  I haven’t been a consistent runner in quite a while and it feels good to say that I didn’t back out of a single run in 7 days.  I took a rest day and maintained my commitment to the schedule when I focused on weights and other cardio exercises.  I followed Hal Higdon’s novice half marathon training guide, but allowed myself the flexibility to switch up the miles or exercises based on my schedule or the weather.  I’m not being too strict with myself that I can’t enjoy it, but am not losing site of the goal, either.

My friend and author of Blind Observations, Jim Duncan, recently wrote, “I’ve always perceived the start of a new calendar year as a great opportunity to take stock of my assets, account for my liabilities, identify my goals, and realign my priorities.”  In the last week, I started running and writing regularly for this blog, began a new job, reevaluated my priorities and made small steps to align my actions with those priorities.  I feel so much positive momentum, and I am curious as to where it (including my thousand miles!) will take me.

I’m looking forward to spending a weekend with my dear friend, Eleni, (hopefully) at the end of the month.  Eleni (@NiBunnie), sent me a message via Twitter that brightened my day: “The park is for runners on Saturday mornings. It was snow covered..beautiful. thought how nice it wouldve been running with u :).”  I can’t wait to run, laugh and share a bottle of wine with Eleni.

Since starting this project, I’ve felt more connected to my community (spending an hour outside every day gives you a chance to take a closer look around), body (when you ask muscles to get moving in the cold after they’ve been dormant for a while, they let you know about it), mind (having dedicated time to yourself lets you hear the things you have been neglecting) and friends (putting yourself out there allows people to show support and love in ways that might surprise you both).

How do you connect with your community?  What do you ask of your body?  What risk will you take & tell others about so they can support you?

UPDATE: TODAY’S RUN: 5.8 miles total, 62 min. YT: 48.9 miles. Thanks to you dear people kindly beleaguering me all day, I got my mileage in! Believe me, I would have Never. Left. My. House. at 8 when I got home from work if it hadn’t been for you. So thank you, thank you, thank you! Also, while about 10 of you commented, over a 100 of you visited, which made a record for my two week old blog. :-) Peer pressure: It works!

TODAY”S RUN?? I found out that I have the Evil Jury Service today – meaning no long run this a.m. Meanwhile, I really need to get mileage in: I’m not behind yet, but I can feel life-at-large starting to shoot its sprightly tendrils into the deep, loamy earth of my 20 mile per week goal. (This purple prose is supposed to make you giggle.) News that I’m going to NY next week for work adds to the anxiety of getting behind…

So, here’s the plan. I’m squeezing in 2 miles this a.m. DONE. But I need you, the few happy souls who have already found their way to my blog (a.k.a. my favorite people in the world), to LEAVE ME A COMMENT that HARASSES ME (defined however you choose; friendly support is good too) to do at least 3 MILES tonight.

I know myself: Getting this body to run at night is like trying to shift Mount Fujiyama. But I think if I come home and face a wall of comments, I just might do it.

Can you help? I promise an update tomorrow, plus a “real” post.