Whatever 'Normal' Is, I Think I Felt It

Today’s Numbers: Nancy's Days Run: 37 Nancy's 2013 Mileage: 112.8 Elly's 2013 Mileage: 58.8 Money Found For Food Bank: $12.35

Remember being a kid on the playground all excited about being at recess, but it was too cold to do much else besides pull your hood up, shove your hands in your pockets and jump up and down while repeating amongst your friends, "I'm so cold!! I'm so cold!!! Brrrrr!! I'm sooooo  cold!!"

Now, picture a kid all grown up with her hands shoved in the front pocket of her hoodie to keep the -1 wind chill from freezing off the tips of her fingers while she runs with her dog. It was quite a sight, I'm sure!! I have no pictures of it because my hands were shoved in my pocket, but I do have a picture of Elly being oh-so patient and safety conscious at an intersection:

"I can't do red-light, green-light. Colorblind and all. But, I can
do look right-look left-look right again. I'm cool like that."

The distance was covered, no one fell down even without the use of my arms for general, everyday balance (bonus!) and I found 36 more cents for the Bank. Wahoo!!

In the last half mile of my very short two miler, I finally felt ... normal again. I'm telling you, the challenges presented this Winter have really rattled the norm, and it is only because I've been through this training schedule before that I have maintained faith it works. Nothing about running lately has felt normal or like I could even pretend to take on the 13.1-mile distance; I've had to draw on history to believe.

On top of the general challenges, I had my eye on April's race as the one where I could "easily" (not sure if that's the right word) set my own personal record without wiping myself out in the process to get there. The way training is going, I'm not so sure that's going to happen. Finish and finish strong? Yes, that's for sure. PR? That feels like a stretch.

I'm truly okay with it, though. In fact, I'm more than okay with it. I'm honestly so glad I haven't pushed running to the side amidst the hurdles that every day I keep going feels like I'm building to a massive victory! And, when today's last half mile felt so normal, well, it's hard to describe how that felt. It was like confirmation that having faith in the process and in continuing forth during those days it has been a drag (or just so darned cold!) was exactly the right way to go even on especially on days it didn't feel like it.

While I normally long run on Friday or Saturday, neither of those two mornings accommodates that plan. So, I'm heading out for my 8 tomorrow. Part of that time will be used to continue mentally planning my shirt for April's run. I started brainstorming the idea last week, and it started coming together this morning -- of course, that happened during that last half mile! I have a number of weeks to think and plan and rethink and redesign, but, it's fun to have something motivating to mentally create to distract me from what's sure to be a chilly run!

We're all tested in countless ways. That's unavoidable. It's what you do during the testing that matters! Most of all, keep the faith in yourself during the process! I'll see you after the morning run!