Ignoring the elephant

I mentioned a few posts back that my doctors had pulled on my running reigns.  I've made a choice (I'm ALL about choices these days).  I'm sort of ignoring their educated opinions.  Not FLAUNTING it, but I've done some reading and it turns out that exercise is encouraged for people with arthritis.  It is actually supposed to HELP.  Of course running probably isn't the best form of exercise I could CHOOSE to do, but it is the most effective when it comes to calorie burning and weight loss.  I went running again today.  I did the elliptical yesterday, so I figured I could run today.  Another 3.1 miles.  This 5K thing is getting easier.  I still feel such a huge burst of pride and accomplishment when I do it.  I think I may need to hover around the 3.1 mile mark for a bit.  Boosting my distance to 4+ miles would be flaunting it, in my opinion.  For some reason, I feel okay if I'm only doing 3 and a bit.    Maybe in a while I will warm back up to the 4+ range but for now I've decided to work on my time.  Turns out that if I wanted to be competitive in a 5K (I can't believe I even just TYPED those words) I will need to be faster.  So I'm going to focus on running faster.  I am currently doing a 5K in about 38 minutes.  If I were to be competitive, I would need to shave a good 14-18 minutes off my time.  That's not gonna be easy.   

I had a trainer tell me the other day that once you get past your 1st mile, you're good to go.  It's that 1st mile that really challenges you.  He went on to say that once you've run 5 miles, you might as well just keep on going, just because you can.  I think I'll focus on that 1st mile for a while.  And I do happen to agree...that 1st mile is the hardest mile.  And maybe the last 1/4 of a mile...but that could be just me.  I have this annoying habit of not finishing things.  I get 3/4 of the way through a project, and I stop.  I just loose interest.  So for me, the last 1/4 is just as challenging and the first.  Maybe if I can do that first mile faster I won't mind the last 1/4 so much.  I'm not sure how I figure that to be true, but I'm willing to give it a go.