Week Two - Summary

It's already Friday and I have yet to post anything this week.

To be honest, when last weekend ended and this one began, I was sure that I was going to quietly abandon my running plan without meaning to. I went Friday, Saturday, and Sunday without running. Friday and Saturday were spent cooking, prepping, and executing a big church potluck dinner. Sunday was Rally Day, which meant that we went back to our fall worship schedule, kicked off Sunday school, and celebrated all afternoon with a big church picnic. I was exhausted on Sunday evening, and could barely rouse myself to eat dinner, let alone try to run.

So then came Monday. It was a quiet enough day, and I managed to get home a little early, so I decided to go for a quick run before I had to pick Matt up from the train. It was a warm day - eighty degrees - and I hate running when it's warm, but I pushed myself to do it anyway. I tried out a new route, a loop this time. Since I hadn't managed to easily run the 1.5 miles prescribed during week one, I decided to repeat week one this week. Ugh. Monday's 1.5 miles was absolutely terrible! It was hot, I was tired and unmotivated, I was still recovering from an exhausting weekend, and I hadn't drunk nearly enough water during the day. So my "run" was pretty much evenly split between running and walking.

Due to some evening meetings and later nights, I didn't run again until Thursday. On Thursday, we at church learned that one of our members - a young, active person with two small kids - was diagnosed with a rare form of treatment-resistant cancer. It was a stressful day for all of us, and so I was glad that I had (again, providentially) brought my running clothes with me to work. I went out running before my evening meeting, and really just ran off my stress. I did a lot of thinking, and let my mind wander to all sorts of life questions. It was praying, in its own way, and with my mind focused on so many other things, I barely noticed my run. I went just over 1.6 miles and didn't bat an eyelash. Running is indeed therapeutic.

Today was kind of a crazy day as well. Being my day off, I made plans to do breakfast and head to the arboretum with my parents. Halfway through breakfast, I got a phone call from church, asking if I could get over to see a member of the congregation who was going in for surgery and pray with her before she went under. So I finished breakfast, scrapped plans to go to the arboretum, ran home and changed, drove over to church to grab a prayer book and some oil, and booked it to the hospital. When I got there, they informed me (and none-too-nicely) that she had gone to surgery earlier than her scheduled time. So, defeated, I headed back home, sad that I had cancelled plans with my parents for what turned out to be no reason. I fretted at home for a while, took a short nap, and then tossed on my running clothes and headed (alone) to the arboretum. My run was short - only around a mile - but with a couple long, steep hills. I might not have gone a great distance, but I definitely worked my butt off. After my run, I changed into non-running clothes and spent a lovely hour wandering around the arboretum with my camera, which is one of my favorite things in the world to do.

So in summary, I've run three days this week (thus far), and seven days out of the last twelve. Hopefully I'll get a run in tomorrow or Sunday, and feel confident enough to increase my distance next week.