I think somewhere on my profile I mentioned that I live in Memphis. For any of you in this geographical area, you know how strange our weather has been this year. Just a few weeks ago, me, my husband and my dog were curled up in our closet listening to the tornado sirens go off for 30 minutes. Yes folks, tornado sirents in January.

Being the {newly} determined person I am, I finally went and bought some really comfortable running socks (believe me, they make a HUGE difference!) and some running pants. Saturday was the day I would take my first run. No excuses were being made....

In true Memphis fashion, I woke up Saturday morning to 23 degrees (not including wind chill) when just the few days before, we were hitting upper 50s/lower 60s. Part of me was excited that I had great excuse not to go for that run. I was still fighting off a cough and was sure that my husband would agree it wasn't a good idea to subject myself to such cold weather. "You have warm weather clothes for a reason" he said. He was right. I mean, I did just invest in nice socks, pants and was pretty sure I had a beanie buried somewhere.

So I suited up in a few layers, dug out some headphones, silently cursed my husband and was out the door.

The first quarter mile was a fast walk to make sure my muscles were warmed up (did I mention it was COLD?). Once my watch hit .25, I took off....and I use that term lightly. "Slow and steady wins the race" is what I hear all the time, so I took that advice to heart. I gained confidence with every cold stride. I couldn't believe that I was running and kind of enjoying it! My watch hit 1.5 miles and I slowed down for a quick break. I ran another quarter of a mile just to push myself to a total of 1.5 miles ran. And literally on the coldest day of year!

It's amazing what we think we can do and what our bodies can actually do. It took a lot to push myself to go, but I felt amazing afterwards. Sunday was a tad warmer, no wind chill that day, so I set to it again accomplishing the same run.

Today I have a legitimate excuse...I am currently listening to sleet/freezing rain lightly ice the roof of my house. While I'm not against running in cold at this point, I'm not sure freezing rain and ice hitting my face would be the best motivation to keep moving. Today I opt for Zumba on the Wii and my heater.

Lesson learned? No excuses this year....not even below freezing temperatures will stop me!

Side Note: I'm excited to see that I had a few readers on my last blog post! I would love for you to add me as a friend and share your workout ups and downs. I'm an open-book and will continue to (hopefully) entertain you with my blog entries!

Happy {icy} Monday :)