this month marks the 2nd year – SECOND YEAR- that i’ve been running. omg! that is nuts to me. in november 2011, i got my $20/month membership to the st. ben’s fieldhouse and used the track 3 times a week doing couch to 5k. two years later, here i am. i still run slow. i still plod along. but i am doing it! here are some tips.

1. make it a personal game with yourself. sure, you can get running buddies who force you to get out there and hit the pavement, but no one is going to make you do it but you. if you don’t have that mindset, you aren’t going to feel any sort of reward. i love it when i get a personal best.
2. get good gear. when i started out, i was wearing two bras (an underwire with a $10 sports bra over it) and a pair of crappy tennis shoes. an awesome bra and a pair of CORRECT running shoes will do wonders; they will help your joints and save the sag.
3. even if you go slow, still go. i can’t run a 10 minute mile. i can barely break a 12 minute mile. that doesn’t matter; at least i’m still out there running and breaking a sweat.
4. get pumped up. if listening to podcasts is your thing, then listen to them while you run. if listening to christmas music is it, then so be it. personally, my playlist is full of britney spears, prince, kesha, and flogging molly (quite the eclectic array, i know).
5. just do it. nike’s right. no excuses. what else were you going to do tonight? try to figure out what to watch on netflix for an hour? stare at cats on reddit for an hour? read crappy literature for an hour? (fyi – i never read crappy literature.) you can carve an hour or less out of your day to do this. what else were you going to do?