Today I jogged for 30minutes! I'm so proud! When I first decided to start jogging in march I could go for a grand total of 3 minutes before I was gasping for breath and forced to slow down and walk. Since those days I have never really managed to get into a routine of jogging regularly, partly due to shift work and partly due to winter turning up and slightly destroying my motivation. However I have managed to get out there at minimum once a fortnight (except recently when I got sick) and slowly but surely my fitness has improved. My goal has always been based on how long I can keep jogging for, not worrying about how far or how fast. My  "short term" goal was always to be able to keep going for 30 minutes, but I have let myself come up to this level gradually because I knew that if I pushed too hard and became really sore it would kill my motivation. So finally, doing it the way I knew would work for me, today I achieved my goal!

So what next? Well, I shall carry on as I have been. Getting to 30 minutes was a bit of a struggle at the last, but I think finally my cardiovascular fitness is now at the point where I can just keep on going without running out of breath. I now feel like stopping because my legs get sore before I feel like stopping because my breathing is getting difficult. 30minutes is often all the time I really have to spare for a jog, so I think it would be good to keep going for this long, just to try and jog a bit faster and go a bit further. And if I happen to have the time, I guess i'll try and keep increasing the length of time I go for. My ultimate goal is not to run marathons, but simply to maintain general fitness and prevent myself from piling on the pounds, and also stress release. I haven't got any grand plans, but I'm really happy with how far I've come.

It's a magical thing discovering how you can slowly improve and change your own body. It's been a bit of a growing and learning experience, and quite honestly I've surprised myself. Yay me!