Day 8

A couple posts ago I talked about dedicating runs to a different person or idea, so after the last couple days I dedicated todays run to being present. It is absolutely beautiful outside today so I decided to do a 5 minute warm up on the bike at Good Life gym and then do my run on the trails that run right behind the building. Today was the same distance as Saturdays "distance" run, three miles. Saturday went terrible, but today went so good.  

After my warm up, I went out to the trail to get started. There were two different paths to choose from, one was paved and one was gravel.  I chose the gravel road because it reminded me of home and started my run.  I went at a comfortable pace the whole time and really paid attention to my breathing, to my rhythm, to me legs, and to my surroundings. I did not check my running watch to see how far I had gone or what my time was,  I was focusing on being present in what I was doing and really just noticing what was around me. It felt so good to run outside and before I knew it the first mile was over. After that I ran for a bit longer hoping it was around a half mile and then turned around so I would end up back at the gym at three miles.  When I turned around I thought how funny it is that you don't notice wind until you are running against it. Shortly after I had turned around my side started to ache with that annoying feeling of having knives in your stomach.  I kept pushing through it, still trying to stay present and trying to remember to honor my body with what I was doing. After a couple more minutes of this the song "Walk it Out" came on my music on shuffle and I took Gods hint and took a quick walk break until the pain subsided. I continued on and felt really good all the way back to the gym where I checked my watch and still had .25 left until my 3 mile goal and my time had roughly 2 minutes till it reached 30 minutes of running. I finished out my last bit of distance and finished my 3 miles in just under 30 minutes. It was awesome. 

When I went back in the gym I still had my SS training left.  I did the same as I did last Monday, 30 minutes of lifting legs and back and stretching.  I also incorporated some of the leg exercises to bring more strength into my shins in hopes of keeping those shin splints away. When I left the gym I felt great about myself and to make it all even better, the sun was shining. 

Be present in what you do and good things will come back to you.