My body stay vicious, I be up in the gym just working on my fitness...

Okay, so maybe I'm far from Fergalicious. But it's true... I have been working on my fitness (so what if it isn't in the gym. I've tried the gym. I'm so bad at the gym. The gym is for ridiculously adorable women who don't sweat when they run and who wear coordinated exercise suits. Not for people in Hard Rock Cafe shirts from their trip to Hawaii 12 years ago and ridiculously tight yoga pants with panty lines showing...).

But I digress.

The point of this post is to document and declare that YES! For once I have kept a New Year's Resolution a whole 20 days into the New Year. It started with the goal of just getting up off the couch (and dropping the ridiculously large bowl full of Tillamook Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream) and just get my butt in gear. A walk. A jog. A bicycle ride around the block. Anything.

So I scoured the Internet looking for a plan (because what is more fun than doing the actual activity? Planning for the actual activity...). I found some cool sites and suggestions and talked it over with some friends. And in the end I had a plan and a goal: following a simple but scheduled running program, I would be up from the couch and running a 5k in nine weeks. C25k was perfect, and would have me in shape and ready to run 3.1 miles in time for a race I was determined to run in March. I talked my mom into joining me in the plan, downloaded a wicked awesome app on my iPhone that helped me set my pace along to music, and I was off.

Day one started on January 1st. Perfect. I took Swee'Pea out in the jogging stroller and began my warm-up. Disaster struck a moment later when I realized that all three tires of my jogging stroller were flat. Ooops. Good thing brother-in-law was home and could help. Long story short, my jogging stroller is beyond dead and I need a new one (grrrrrr) but thankfully sister-in-law is not in need of her single jogging stroller at the moment and I'm borrowing it for awhile (thank you, sister!).

So back to the run. It was fun. It was peaceful. It was refreshing. And I finished my first 30 minutes feeling proud and accomplished and satisfied. And hungry. But aren't I always?

I ran the next three days straight without break, knowing that if I skipped the suggested days in between runs that I would quit immediately. I'm just that way. I know I have to do something every day for awhile to make it a habit, and so every day I did.

Week 2 started and I was starting to feel frustrated. I lost the initial feeling that my body was being worked-out, and started to feel like I needed to push myself further. So back to the Internet I went (because research is just so. much. fun.). I checked out some sites, talked with some friends, and got some encouragement from a gal that I love and am in awe of on a daily basis.

And so my new plan formed. And I began my training. I logged just under 10 miles in week two. And last week, just under 18. I'm set to run about 20 this week, if the rain continues to give me nice breaks in the afternoon and I can get my long run of 7-8 miles in on Saturday. I have just eight short weeks to reach my goal of being able to run 13.1 miles straight... that's right. A half marathon. As in HALF of a FULL MARATHON. As in running for 3+ hours with no other goal than to just get across the finish line and pray I don't die.

And you know what? I'm so stinking excited I can hardly stand it. My body itches each and every day to get out and run. It is freeing. Relaxing. And therapeutic. I feel stronger, less stressed, and generally just more content. Even Popeye has commented how much happier I am now that I am running. It helps that the weight I gained over the holidays disappeared within the first two weeks of running (Praise the Lord. If I had one more button shoot off of my work pants during class I was going to permanently switch to wearing old sweatpants and destroy my scale). And it helps that through running I've been able to have that quiet time I so crave... away from the stress of work and home and the chaos of life in general. Just me... the road... and my iPod filled with music that pumps me up and keeps me motivated.

Sixty days, people. Just sixty days until I take my place at the starting line and race my little buns off in the Wine Country Marathon in Paso Robles. I'm pumped... pumped that I'll be racing alongside a good friend and several gals from work... pumped that I'll be cheering for my amazing mother as she races in the 5k... pumped that for once I have a goal that seems so obtainable, and that is helping me to me happier and healthier as well. Pumped that this crazy little resolution of mine is actually turning into something amazing.

And speaking of amazing, stay tuned for another update on the running front. It's a little project I'm working on and I can't remember that last time I was this stoked about something. But it requires all of your help... so stay tuned!