Although this most does have to do with running, it has nothing to do with gingerbread men. However, with it being the holiday season, I felt inclined to have my titles reflect some amount of Christmas spirit.
Although the weather is getting colder and I can feel like legs starting to give up on the idea of running outside (or wait, maybe that is my lungs talking) so far I have managed to keep my feet on the pavement instead of the treadmill.
The other day my mom and I met at the gym in hopes of getting 2.5-3 miles in. I warmed up on the treadmill by doing 1.5miles and then headed outside with mom to get some fresh air! I seriously love running outside compared to running inside especially because a treadmill is even worse than a track. I know it is an evil necessity because I live in Ohio but that doesn’t stop me from being disappointed that I have do it. I have been feeling really good about my progress and love looking back thinking of the times where I couldn’t run a mile straight or my first 5K that I thought would kill me. I love that a normal every day run for me now is a race that I used to strive to complete. I hope one day I feel that way about a halfathon too but for now the goal is just to finish next August!
In the past, I have always used running as a way to clear my head- I way to gather my thoughts in one place and then leave them all on the sidewalk. Recently, running has been less of an individual thing for me and more of a bonding experience. Since my mom has always committed to this halfathon (I hope that catches on- I have officially added it to my dictionary on word so it will stop telling me I am typing something incorrectly) I have enjoyed using running as a time for the 2 of us to just be together.
It is SO easy to get lost in the everyday shuffle of life and while the wedding has certainly given us things to think about and forced us to spend countless hours planning and talking, running is something we do by choice. We meet at the gym and run together because we want to. I wouldn’t go as far to say we actually have much conversation during our runs because I am usually too out of breath for that but I know that she is there for me and that she is taking up a new hobby to have one more thing in common with me. I can tell that running makes her feel good about herself and I influenced that in even the smallest way, I feel honored. For all of the many things my mom has said to me and done for me in order to make me feel better about myself, it was certainly time I tried to do the same for her.
So we managed to get the mileage in and finished through the small snow flakes that started falling. The snow was actually pretty refreshing and wasn’t the usual Ohio type snow that feels more like hard ran hitting you in the face. It was calm, quiet, gentle almost and almost said “you can finish this, I’ll hold off until you do” and we did!
Now, of course, running by myself is a hard fact of that that I realize I have to do sometimes! Before I headed out to the airport to go to Miami, FL for work I made sure to stop at the gym to get some miles in. It would be really hard to hit the 10 mile goal this week if I had to save it all for 2 days. So I hit the treadmill and got 2.5 miles in as a I watched the rain fall outside. UGH, just my luck! I’m stuck inside the gym with no one to talk to because it is raining. Then as I tore myself away from the terrible TV program on at the gym I realized it had stopped raining! I quickly threw on my too big for me sweatshirt, took a quick drink of water, and did my last 1.5 miles outside!
Since I knew I was always going to be doing 1.5 miles outside (to get to my 4 mile goal for the day) I made sure to try to do this run for time. My goal was the complete it within 15 min which I accomplished just in the nick of time! It is hard to think that I used to have to run a 8 minute mile for soccer back in high school… that goals seems many miles and years away!
It was just what I needed before being stuck on an airplane for 3 hours! It was boring without my mom there with me but it was still nice to get out there. I started thinking about all of the Christmas fun Tim and I were about to embark on over the next week or so and felt grateful to have family and friends close enough to share the holidays with!
It will be a busy few weeks but worth every minute of the driving back and forth and preparation!
