Running Update: Nerd Alert

I have a lot on my mind. There is a lot going on in my life. I’m not saying this because YOU don’t have as much as ME going on. I’m saying this because I am one of you. And I want you to all know that, despite my tendency to talk about my life and the things in it a lot on my website, there are things that I keep to myself. And I have problems handling them, at times. So, to all the people out there who have crap going on in their life and are looking for a way to handle things, may I suggest going for a jog?




I know! That is probably the lamest sentence I’ve ever written!! I am embarrassed of myself.



But, hear me out.



I used to really dread running days. I would think about the inevitable run all day long and let it preoccupy my thoughts and I would complain about how the weather wasn’t cooperating and I would put it off for hours and hours and hours.



And, I totally still do that. But, in a way, I also really look forward to it.



It’s MY time. Just for me. No one else. There is no other time in the day where the action that I am doing is for entirely just for me. And, because I am not worrying or thinking about anyone else, namely the small person in my house who normally takes up a lot of my brain power, I am free to think about other things. Anything really! I can think about problems I might be having and what my next step in handling should be. Or, I can think about ice cream. Whatevs. Either or. Neither nor. WHATEVER I WANT.



It’s not unusual for me to come back from a jog and have a full list of things I want to tell Greg. Like last night, I finally got to thinking about that damn broken pool pump, and I figured that it would be in our best interest to replace it, despite its hefty price tag, because closing the pool now and not using it for the rest of the summer would be detrimental to the mental health of everyone in our family. And several neighbors. And it took me about 4 minutes of weighing the pros and cons about the pool pump to actually come up with this answer, but do you know we had been hemming and hawing over it for the past two weeks unable to come up with an answer?! All it took was some uninterrupted time to think about it.



And the fact that I sound like the biggest dork in the land does not go unnoticed. Believe me, I know I sound like the band geek that I really am. Ahem, Color Guard geek. But, this past week has been one of the toughest weeks of my life. Any type of problem that could have come up has reared its ugly head: Money? Check. Employment? Check. Health? Check. Family? Check. And I’m a little surprised that I’m not lying in a puddle on my basement floor begging for a Xanex. All I know is that I leave the house before a jog in a wretched, stressed out mood, and I return feeling better about my life, myself, my problems. So, take from that what you will.



So, here’s a quick rundown of my jog these days. I leave the house at 8 p.m., when it’s cooled down a little and the sun is no longer shining. I am leaning towards a Wednesday, Friday, Sunday schedule. I’ve tried other days, but these seem to work best for me. I am on week 5 of the 5K101 podcast, which is an 8 minute interval jog. I start with a 5 minute warm up, jog for 8 minutes, walk for 2, jog for 8, walk for 2, jog for 8, and then walk home and use that at my cool down. Last night it took me about 36 minutes to complete the entire jog and I covered about 2.25 miles. I have also been working on my breathing technique, as I can’t do anything strenuous for 8 minutes straight without having to regulate my breathing in some way. I think it is making a huge difference, as when I arrived back home after the jog last night, Greg questioned whether I had even done the run at all, as I wasn’t hyperventilating, “like you normally are.”



He’s such a gem!
.
.
.
.