One Step at a Time

I think I’m getting it.

I think I’ve learned something in this very first week of following these run/walk intervals, even though I’ve wanted to push myself harder on certain nights.

I think I was hurting myself, and my performance, by trying to do too much too soon. In the effort to “be” a runner, I was really pushing myself, and adding mileage a bit too quickly. I was feeling tired all of the time, and kept thinking I had to do more, more, more if I was ever going to be able to do a race.

This week of doing the 20 minute workout, and supplementing with some walking and swimming, has done me the world of good. Maybe it is a confidence booster for me to go into this clinic and feel able to do this, I dunno. Physically, I have loads of energy, am sleeping mostly better, and the best news: my ankle feels normal!!! Yay!!! I also recognize that I feel positive and excited, and I feel as if something pivotal is happening in my life that I really can’t put text to yet. It’s big and it’s about more than the running, really.

That’s where I’m at. I’m looking forward to my son’s bike-trail-and-BMX-track birthday party tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to the running clinic tomorrow night.

In closing, I was really moved today, reading blogs. One race report actually moved me to tears. If you haven’t already, go over and give this guy a pat on the back. An inspiration, he is!

1. Wow. What a variety of people are here.
2. Wow. That instructor just said, “No one is too slow here. We’re here to have fun.”
3. Wow. They’ve put another instructor at the back of the pack of 25 women and 2 men. She’s committed herself to run at the back, bless Inga’s soul.
4. Okay, I need to stop saying “Wow”. It’s incredibly annoying.
5. Bless her soul, but I don’t really wanna run with Inga.
6. I think I have more of a competitive spirit that I’ve acknowledged.
7. Look at me, I’m in the middle.
8. Look at that: there are much thinner, “fitter-looking” people than me who are really struggling with these intervals.
9. This woman beside me is chatty AND funny.
10. I’m grateful for the combination.
11. I’m sweating … it’s hot … but I’m not completely spent. I’ve run harder than this before, and that’s a good feeling.
12. Holy cow, we’re done!?
13. Holy cow is really no better than wow.
14. My ankle did not swell!
15. Yay!!!!!!!!!
16. Running is my friend.

I’m exhausted from a weekend of camping. Kevin’s uncle and aunt own a campground not far from us, so we spent a couple of nights there, with my parents along. It was enjoyable, and the kids had free reign of the campground, which they loved. I have to figure out later how to post pictures of my boys each riding antique tractors, pushing large plastic barrels, on Uncle George’s “barrel racing” track. It was incredibly comical to watch, and they were on top of the world, riding these huge machines (at this speed: putt …… puttt ….. putttttt…..) all on their own. We also went to a Canada Day parade on Friday in a really small town. As in, so small that the parade did the route twice, just to make it “worth it”!! Our children got barrels of candies as spectators … they were thrilled, of course.

Got in a nice 5k walk / run on Saturday, after which the ankle was just ever-so-slightly tender. I had a long talk with Tara last night about my mental blocks about running and racing. I’m processing all that went on in that conversation, and will share soon. The running clinic starts tonight, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that goes.

The kids start swimming lessons today …. at an outdoor pool … and it looks like the Alberta weather is going to cooperate (for this hour! ) I’m excited, as all three are in at the exact same time (the youngest in a parented program with me).

Happy Fourth of July to all of my friends south of the border!