Final Thoughts on Janathon

Final thoughts…..  Well, for my last official night of Janathon it was my intention to walk the hills program on the treadmill for 1 mile.  Except that about 10 minutes before I was ready to start, my son walked in with a back cherry, hot fudge sundae for me.  Plan A went out the window and Plan B kicked in – 1 mile of running instead.  So I did 1 mile in 11.14 to close out Janathon.

Here are my totals for the month of January:

• Run -  19.2 mi - 3.9 hrs
• Walk - 13.5 mi - 4.4 hrs
• Cross training  - 2.4 hrs
• Total -  32.7 mi - 10.7 hrs

This was my first time participating in a Janathon and I didn’t know what to expect.  On the surface, it sounded like a no brainer – commit to working out every day for the month of January and then blog about it.  No big deal, right?  Right…..

Except that I learned really quickly that sometimes life just does tend to get in the way of your best intentions.   Most days I didn’t have a problem getting on the treadmill and putting in a mile or two.  I alternated with floor exercises, stretching, and something new for me, planking.  There were a couple of nights where I didn’t care about working out.  The enthusiasm just wasn’t there.  But I had made a commitment, more to myself than anyone else, and so I would drag myself out of my chair and do some sort of exercise.  And I’ll tell you something – I was always glad that I did afterwards.

I participated in Janathon more for myself than anything else.  I wanted to make the commitment and follow it through to the end.  I wanted the exercise and I wanted to hopefully improve my running a little, which I think I did.  I’m not a marathoner.  Heck, I barely have the aspirations to do a real 5K.  But I do want to be healthy, improve my running and my stamina.  However, most of all, I hope that I can inspire one person to do something positive for their health.  In fact, I got my daughter to commit to the Couch to 5K Program.  Today she said to me, “Mom, I ran 5 minutes straight on the treadmill.  I’ve never done that in my life.”  Now that means more to me than any personal record of my own ever will.

Janathon was great for the inspiration and it was fun because I got to meet some new bloggers in the process.  I really want to thank my regular readers for following along this month and giving me support.  February will bring me back to my normal posts, but I think I will continue my personal quest towards a healthier lifestyle. 

Thanks to all the folks who were a part of Janathon 2014.  It was fun and a real learning experience for me.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a black cherry, hot fudge sundae to go eat.  But don’t worry, I promise to only eat half of it.