On Running.

I was chatting with the salon teacher the other night while we were both getting some pedis. (There are tons of fun perks of being in beauty school, but that's another post for another day.) This woman is an athlete. Next month she's doing a 12 mile swimming race. Anyway, her feet were pretty beat up from all her running and training. And then she looked over at mine and asked why mine looked so good.

We've been in Wisconsin for a tough over four months now. We're establishing a routine and we're finally settled enough that I can get back to my fitness goals. So we sat there, feet soaking, and we were chatting about the weather. She said Wisconsin has two seasons. There is 8-9 months of winter, and the rest is construction season.

I've just been running on a treadmill at the gym. And I've only been doing about two miles each time. Earlier this week, the weather was GORGEOUS. The girls and I took a country drive and stopped at a creamery for ice cream. And they had the most adorable baby cow. I was tempted to ask Ross to quit and take up farming. The sun and the country had me itching for a long road run.

We just finished up a curriculum at school, so we had Saturday off. All week I had planned my run. Ross was prepared to let me go (And go and go and go). I wanted to run down the road to a monastery and then check out a big park by the lake on the way back. Originally when I decided to start running again, I looked up my old training schedule. I used it last summer to really get back to running. I loved that schedule. It was extremely novice, but by the end of the five weeks, I could run 5 miles in 45 minutes.

When push came to shove, I decided to not use the plan. I figured I could just tough it out and hope for the best.

Well, Saturday came. I packed my little water carrier thing, started out. Turned around before I left the apartment complex to put the water back. For some reason, I kept the carrier. It kept riding up, bouncing around, and rubbing. I spent most of the time fidgeting with the stupid thing. And there was the wind. And the hills I somehow forgot about. I went probably halfway when I decided I had had enough fun. I made sure I ran the whole way back, had a sandwich, and ended up taking a nap that was longer than my run.

Here's the thing about running. It is incredibly humbling. Everyone has to start somewhere, I get that. But, when that starting point is significantly lower than what you had in your head, your chest is a bit less puffed out and your head is a whole lot smaller.

There's a saying that goes something like, missing your run for seven days makes one weak. well imagine missing your run for close to six months. I have put my Runners Anonymous shirt to shame.

Running is always going to be hard. It's hard to wake up, hard to tie your shoes and step out the door. For some, mile 1 is hard. For others, it isn't hard until mile 12. And you can always make it harder. When mile 12 gets easier, you try to do it faster. And then sometimes there's wind and hills and rain. In high school, our cross country shirts said, "Our sport is what your sport does for punishment." Runners are a special breed.

And I think I'll spend the afternoon writing out that training plan on my little calendar to start on Monday.