I almost missed it… I slept in this morning and went through a day of meetings, movie night with the kids and then, at 9pm I realized the streak might end… But it didn’t! 2 miles at 9:15 and I’m the man!  Seriously folks, 30 days of at least 2 miles per day! Keep the streak alive! And now, I drop the mic.

Bristol, CT – February 6, 2013: Satellite Dish Farm (Photo by Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)

I’ll keep this one short and sweet because, well it’s late and I have no words of wisdom…save one.  Did you know that, to be effective, satellite uplink and downlinks are often placed on high places with clear views to the sky.  This helps with signal acquisition and also places them safely out of high-traffic areas.  Unfortunately, these dishes also live on ESPN’s 5K course.  What does that mean?  Another hill!  I’m not yet ready to make this a rule but I’m getting close… when making a comeback to running, you might just want to avoid running a lot of hills…I’ll let you know tomorrow!

There is a scene in Castaway where Tom Hanks’ character tries desperately to leave the island he’s trapped on.  He makes attempt after attempt but is thrown back by the tidal waves off the island.  Those scenes stuck in my head this morning as I plotted away on a 2 mile run.  I was absolutely exhausted, sore from my return to running and fighting off a cold.  I wanted, more than anything, to give myself one day off…just once chance to relax.  I thought, if I just reward myself with one day…even though it’ll violate my 30 day trial, or if I just ran 1 mile and then ran another mile later today..that would count!  Then, it hit me, I’m hitting my first plateau.

The rule for the trial is 30 days of at least 2 miles per day.  I’m modifying that to include 2 miles in a single run.  It’s important to fight through the urge to “reward” yourself in this first plateau.  This is the stage where whatever motivation got you back running is starting to fade and you’re forced with the realization that you’re trying to build a lifestyle change.  It won’t be easy but, instead of looking at the big picture, I’m going to take this one day by day…. so I’ll run another 2 miles later today and try for 3 tomorrow…but WILL get at least 2.

Life sure does come at you fast.  After a relaxing trip to the farm, the daily grind has approached again.  The sultry sounds of my Microsoft Surface going off at 5am (for those who’re wondering, an alarm clock is about all the original Surface is good for) reminded me that it’s time to “attack” the world.  With the stiffness of a 90 year old man, I “charged” outside with a cup of coffee and the dog…for a walk.  After milking that as long as I could, I went for my run.

It was 2.46 miles.  Why not 2.5?  Because I didn’t feel like it!  No seriously, the stiffness and pain of a 6am run is exactly why I think I’ve resisted running for so long.  Yesterday’s gleeful 10am run with beautiful fall foliage and cool crisp mid-morning air was matched with pitch black, rainy temperatures and the feeling of sharp knives in the legs.  With that said, I’m done and feel glad I ran… so there’s at least that…

And this picture about explains it… After just over 9 miles of Western NY hill running I marched out this am for a 2 mile jaunt… To be honest that’s about all I could handle…

 But I’m working on a theory… I think it’ll become a rule soon enough… The theory is you need 30 straight days of 2+ miles running without a day off. If you do that, you’ll form a habit that’ll be strong enough to withstand a day off here and there. We shall see…

I can say I was excited to run today, for the first time in a long time, it wasn’t a chore! Hurt like hell though 🙂

There’s a famous Toby Keith song that recalls the theme, “I’m not as good as I once but I’m as good once as I ever was.” After my hell hill yesterday I thought today was going to be my day off… It wasn’t!

I went out there and tackled three miles of hills in just under 30 minutes… It hurt but that’s the pain that I recall will make me better…

A mile into my run I turned around to find strange motivation in an old friend who is also struggling to find the shell of the machine she used to be… #loveyamaddie

 It was wonderful to run today… The weather  was beautiful and I needed just 5.2 miles to make 20 miles for the week. I hit the road and cleared the first mile in 8:06.  Woah, what was that! Was it just a week and I’m making that much progress? Mile 2 came in at 9:15…okay so I’m coming back to earth. Mile 3 in 9:19… Still okay but now I’m back to the rusty mileage I’ve been doing.

Mile 4 was death. For future information, if you are running along and you see a road called “Highup Rd”, you should move along. Highup Road is, as advertised, and it leads to Hunter Hill. Hunter Hill is, arguably, the steepest hill in North America.  At 11:50 for the mile up the hill, I’m fairly certain I saw hell and I think I could smell the fragrance of burning lungs. I made it though and I’m better off for it!  For the first time in awhile I ran for the pure enjoyment of running… To see beautiful fall views and to challenge myself to do more, faster.  I will, however, avoid Highup Rd tomorrow.