Glorious Exhaustion!

Complete physical exhaustion is a new feeling for me. At least newish. There were times back when that I would push it HARD in cheerleading camp and come home feeling like a noodle. But as of late and as far as my body is concerned, this feeling is new...and oddly wonderful. It is awesome to know that I have pushed my self to my limit and succeeded. I have done more exercise in the last 24 hours than I had probably done all of last year. Everything hurts and everything is sore and yet, I feel fantastic and proud. I think I even the tip of my nose is a tad bit sore.

To achieve this level of complete done-ness, I started with a 5K race at midnight last night, more on that later, woke up for my regular Thursday morning workout, worked all day--late even (I missed my nap = not OK), then ran for my entire hour long running class.

There is more about all of this, but I will post more later. The exhaustion has reached my brain and is leaching to the tips of my fingers.

Stolen

I read this today. It is simple and big.

"Running is spirituality with laces. Running teaches us lessons of life, but how we run and why we run reflect the lessons of life already learned."

I agree.

Victory!!

My goal is to run the Disney Princess half-marathon next March. But reaching that goal is not the victory. Every run from the first day forward is the victory! Yesterday, during my running class, I just had to laugh. The warm-up was a lap around the track, stated just so casually. In January when I started this whole "running" thing, I was elated to run through the straights on that same track, let alone a lap. The day I completed ONE WHOLE LAP, I jumped up and down and wanted to scream I was so excited. And here I am, 3 months and change later and the ONE WHOLE LAP around the track was the warm-up, and I could do it and it truly was a warm-up, not the whole workout! That is Victory.

Runs with Dogs

Running with my dog, Bernie, adds a whole new adventure to my runs. There is Me speed which is comparable to a turtle and there is Bernie speed which rivals a race horse. Then, there is my poor little arm desperately trying to hold onto the leash as Bernie leaps and dives after any animal that crosses our path.

Running with a dog is the equivalent of running speed drills. She does not understand my slow almost running pace and insists that we get to a trot at least. I ran my fastest mile this morning when I took Bernie out with me. I was very excited, although, I've never had an arm quite this sore from running...last time I checked running focuses on ones legs.

The thing about blogging

So here's the thing about blogging. It may actually take more motivation for me to sit down and write about running than it takes for me to get up and go out on a run. Now THAT is saying something. If only I could develop some sort of device that allowed me to type while running, I would be a writing machine. My brain just works in a different way on a run. I think "Gee, this would be awesome to put in my blog". Then, I get home, usually hop in the shower and that is the end of the bloggy thoughts.

Routine. That's what I'm going for. I need to develop a deadline for myself and write.

Attitude is everything...

So far, running has been funny and exciting, but today I discovered THE challenge. I would venture to say that one's mental attitude is significantly more important that physicality. Each time I've set out on a run its been such an adrenaline rush to know that I was currently taking one more step than I've ever taken before and I was determined to make it further each time. Today, I went out in a sour mood and so annoyed at the work it was going to take to put one foot in front of the other that not even strapping on my bright pink running sneaks improved my mood; but, I went anyways.

The trail was damp and overcast from the weather. It appropriately reflected my emotions. I started out and 10 steps into my run, literally, I thought I could not go any further. This is the same trail I run on a fairly regular basis. I always start out running and am completely convinced in the moment that my lungs have spontaneously lit on fire and that they may possibly burst out of my mouth. I know, from experience, that this will not indeed happen so I keep going until I can fall into a groove and pound out a my 1.5 mile goal. At that point it takes determination to get into a rhythm and then its great fun. Ten steps was about all my mind could handle today. Ten steps and I couldn't convince myself that my lungs were actually fine. Ten steps and my brain was exhausted. Then to secure my attitude that running was just NOT happening today a strange man on a bicycle followed me for the short distance I had gone. He rode slowly behind me talking to himself and staring. That was it! I turned around and got back in my car.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will take more than 10 steps.