First, shout out to my Gran. She is my most devout reader and I was thinking about her a lot during my run today. Love you Gran!

And now the actual post: After two days of lots of work and no working out, I climbed out of bed, quickly got dressed before I changed my mind, and went out on a run. Before I ran, however, I had to decide where to run to…

This can be a tough one, especially when you live in a city made for cars. Some people need a different route every day but for me its more about predictability, otherwise I would never run anywhere.

If you’re like me and need some predictability but also some room to progress, here are some tips:

– find a park or running/bike trail with boundaries like fences or walls to keep cars out

OR  find a great block or two near your neighborhood to run/walk around.

– find a pleasant way to get from your house to this place

– map out your first run on mapmyrun.com to get your starting distance

Peoria has a great abandoned railroad that they are converting to a bike/jogging path called the Rock Island Trail. According to Map My Run, the head of the trail is 1.75 miles from my house. Today, Day One, I ran that distance and back totaling 3.5 miles. It was tough and full of hills but I did it! Also, sadly, there are areas where there’s no sidewalk which sucks but it’s only for a short distance.

^ No sidewalk?? WTF mate!

Hopefully soon I’ll get comfortable enough to run/walk some of the actual trail.

^ The trail head, hopefully I’ll run some of it next time.

Also, just for fun, we were eating breakfast on the deck and Mike decided it would be a great idea to feed the bunnies some celery stalks. Hahaha. This is why I love him.