new blogger, running and quitting smoking

I'm new to this blog and I'm looking forward to getting started. I'm really behind in getting healthy, as compared with my co-bloggers, with whom I'm so impressed, but, in a very modest way, I'm on my way to a renewed me. Yes!

Last week I started running again after about 6 years since I had last run. Yes, I blame it on linguistics. Not that I left the field, but I finished my dissertation, so now I need to do something for my body. Also, because I moved to a Mexican town that isn't precisely the example to follow if you want to be healthy: extremely greasy food, nobody has the habit to walk to places, traffic is absurdly busy and reckless (meaning way more pollution than I've ever seen), the stress of being starting a career... I still walk to school but I wanted to do something else. My husband, Kip, and I started running when we were staying at my mom's in Spain, this winter. But then we had to come back to America, for my defense, then to start my job... we didn't go running after leaving Spain... until now. I really needed a new start. I'm having a hard start in my new job and I need something that helps me feel better with myself. Since running has always been hard for me, I thought it was the perfect thing to do. Also because access to swimming pools seems difficult in this town. In the summer they're available, but I'm not sure about the availability at other seasons. Also, you need a medical certificate to get a swimming pass and I still have to work out my medical insurance.

Anyway: last week we went running every morning we could. We normally go every morning as long as we went to bed at a reasonable time the night before. I think we went running everyday except for the day after Spain won the semi-finals against Germany and the day they won the World Cup, for obvious reasons :)

This week, we've gone running every day except for Monday. We started walking a mile (warm up), running a mile and walking a mile (cool down). Kip is quite athletic but I'm not, so we had to start easy with me. So far I've been working on getting faster in my mile. Yesterday i made my best mark (9.7 minutes, I think). I'm working on bettering this mark. I didn't time it today because Kip and I had a little argument while running (the effects of quitting smoking for both). But I did run a slightly longer distance than other days (more than a mile, although I'm not sure how much longer). It felt like I was faster too (I needed it since I feel more anxious today). I'll try to go as fast tomorrow, although it also depends on the weather. These days it's been excessively humid, which makes it very hard to breathe at times.

Yesterday I smoked twice only, with not much pain. Today I haven't smoked at all and it's hurting. I'm feeling the physical effects, which I wasn't feeling yesterday or last time I quit, which I did gradually. Today I'm feeling like smoking at many times, which didn't happen that other time either. Kip is the same, although he's not smoking too. Gotta be strong although I would really smoke a cigarette right now!