Sore muscles. Stiff neck. What in the world did I do to myself? Oh that's right. I decided to start running. If you vaguely remember me mentioning running in the past, it's probably because I didn't. I don't run. I have tried. And failed. MANY times.

I have been practicing yoga again for 8 weeks straight. Ninth if you count Sunday. When I got on the treadmill on Friday morning I thought, why not? I feel stronger than I have in a long time and I've really learned to breathe, which was always one of my issues when running.

I warmed up for 4 minutes before I took the 1 minute plunge. I guess you can call it jogging more than running, but it was more than walking folks. Everyone has to start somewhere right?

To my amazement I didn't huff and puff the whole time. I didn't feel like collapsing in a pile of mush. I made it through the first minute and dialed it back to a brisk paced walk. I alternated between a brist walk, incline, and jog for 20 minutes.

It was a huge accomplishment for me. I felt great. And then I didn't. Saturday morning came and I was really stiff and sore. It didn't slow me down, but reminded me of what I did.

I took the rest of the weekend easy, minus my yoga and I recovered. Last night I tried again. I am still sore this morning but not as bad. I do have one question to those of you who do run regularly: Any advice on helping out the shins? They seem to be the only part of my body that struggles through my running intervals.

I'm gonna keep at this. It's gotta get better right?

Why hello there. Nice to see you all. First and foremost I want to thank everyone for the support this week. Thanks to everyone who have taken my survey. If you haven't I would love if you did. Plus you will be entered to win a $10 Starbucks gift card!

Today I am interested in finding out what keeps you coming back to a blog. Is it based solely on the content? Do you enjoy the style of writing? Maybe you just absolutely love the design?

I want to say I come back to a blog only for the content, but to be honest I have come back for the style of writing. For example humor. Sometimes I could not care one bit about the content but if the writer can keep me entertained just by their approach I'm hooked.

I also come back if there is a product linked to the blog that I enjoy. And by product, this could be a service they offer. Take Helene from Helene in Between for example. Her blog to me is one big service. She uses her space to help other bloggers succeed. I know going into her blog what to expect and leave with valuable and useful information.

I guess you could say I am very niche friendly. But speaking about a niche, do you think they really bring in more readers? If I blogged specifically about cats, do you think I'd succeed as a blogger?

That I'm not 100% sure about yet, but I've read a lot of "reports" about this. I enjoy being a lifestyle blog with a few specific topics rather than marrying myself to just cats.

What do you think? What keeps you coming back to a blog? Anything specific?

So this week marks the first week of my "test" for this blog. It will be pretty random but I have a lot of ideas that need to be tested before rolling them out in May. If you have no idea what I am talking about, please check out my post from Friday. It will make this less confusing :)

Today I wanted to host a quick poll to get a better understanding of all of you and add that to some of my research for my ideas. Every person who takes the poll will be entered into a drawing for a $10 Starbucks gift card. The poll will last the whole month of April to help capture a whole cycle on this blog.



Because this is a quick random poll, you will need to comment that you took the poll. This will be on the honor system as the poll does not ask for your information.

I appreciate you taking the time to take the poll and I hope you have a wonderful day!