I am running again, trying to reignite the passion and restore my stamina. It hasn't been going all that well, if you want to know the truth. The word "lackluster" comes to mind.

But tonight I tried something different. Partly I was inspired by a recent Biggest Loser episode during which the contestants were flogged by the evil witch Gillian because they couldn't run 5 minutes at a 6mph pace. I thought, hm, I've been running for two years, am not nearly as big as those contestants, and I don't run that fast for a full 5 minutes! I wonder if I could...

I was also partly inspired by my wise friend Mary who is a fitness coach and incredible athlete herself. A while back she gave me some "Well, duh" advice, which was: If you want to get faster at running, run faster. For me running faster is running 6mph for a minute and then back down to normal pace. I've been doing this for a while and oddly I don't seem to be getting faster overall. I wonder if I could...

So tonight I tried something new, marrying together my Biggest Loser inspiration with Mary's wise advice. I did short bursts at 7mph, which felt pretty darn fast but not impossible. AND I ran a whole 5 minutes at 6mph, which felt actually kind of easy at first after struggling with the 7mph. By the end of the 5 minutes, though, I was ready to be done!

Overall I ran 2.56 miles in 30 minutes, which is really good for me!

I can see that if I want to do better, I have to actually push myself to do more than I've been doing. And that, my friends, is a good lesson to learn.