For the past week everyone's been saying the same thing: can you believe the month is almost over? Yes, yes I can. Time flies and yesterday it was 2000 and tomorrow it'll be 2020! Having said that though I really can't believe my first 30 Day Challenge is done. Did I complete the challenge like I wanted to? Do I feel accomplished? Was enough effort put into it? I'll answer all the questions below.

Did I complete the challenge?  My challenge was about building my endurance up as much as possible. I wanted to run 7 miles without stopping and having good time. My plan to achieve this was to run every other day with doing the 30 Day Shred in between. I did really well during the first 10 days but then work got to me and I was working 14 hours a day for 5 days. Ouch! I did not work out at all during those days because I was on my feet and was mentally and physically exhausting.

When the 5 days were over I eased my way back into running because the weather was still amazing out here and managed to build up to 3 miles without stopping. I felt my stamina and endurance rise and I even started to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth instead of doing both from my mouth like an amateur. Doing the shred helped me avoid feeling weak whenever I had to lift my arms for a long period of time and I just felt stronger overall.

Do I feel accomplished? Absolutely. I feel accomplished because I was running more than I have in a long time and was pushing myself to try to reach my goal. Whenever I couldn't run because of work I didn't feel discouraged and didn't let one day off turn into two weeks off because I know I was trying my best.

Was enough effort put into it? Honestly I could've put a lot more. There were days that I didn't have to work until later on and only gave myself 30 minutes to run instead of an hour or I waited until the last possible minute to hit the track. Effort was put into it but I really could have put more.

The end result is that I ran more than I have in a long time, I am driven to run a bit more per week in the month of February as I did in January and it's giving me something to continue to do.  My run today was pretty amazing because I kept a really good pace and didn't feel like dying when I was done. I am happy with the mindset that I was in and think this will help me achieve the rest of my challenges for the year.