Training Detox

As much as I have come to love the mornings on the road, I've become just as big a fan of the Sunday mornings off of it. It's my rest day. :) And I'm enjoying it. :) This morning was so beautiful that I still got to experience the outdoors, I just enjoyed it in a more idle way by grabbibg my Bible and heading for one of the benches in the apartment complex. (And grabbed the coffee cup, too. Sunday morning wouldn't be complete without it!)

I didn't write yesterday because I didn't have time between the run and our church service project. It was an awesome run, though. UNBELIEVABLE weather. No wind for once! And, I can tell that I'm coming down out of training mode. I ran it a little slower--over 8 per mile--and I totally didn't care. :)

I'm learning that it's okay to ease out of training, just as you ease into it. At least for me, it's okay. After the marathon and training so hard for so long, I would have gone CRAZY if I'd just stopped running for a while. Instead, I eased out of the training mode by gradually scaling back, and I'm getting now to the point where I'm almost ready to engage in running like a normal person again. :) Almost. I'll get there. Life circumstances will step in and make me.

One other thing I've also had to embrace over the last two weeks has been the absence of any sort of life I had while training. You wake up after the marathon and realize that you've turned down so many social opportunities over the past four months that no one even bothers asking you to do anything anymore because you'll just say no. What a lonely position to be in! But I'm working on that, too. It's just going to take some effort and humility (and maybe some bribery with homemade cookies) to beg my friends for their company. :)

So, that's the scoop. Training detox is well underway, it's just taking some time. But I'm also looking at the future race calendar and trying to decide what races to do in the fall. I'm looking at a half in September and another full in October. I'll keep you posted! :) More life lessons from the road to come! :)

Ciao, friends! Enjoy a day and be sure to position yourself to encounter Christ today! :)

-Jill