The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”
This was kind of a rough workout. It was the first run I’ve done with any distance in a little while and I wasn’t really up for it. I’m not sure why, I just wasn’t motivated. Chris floated the idea of missing church and I didn’t freak out, so he went with it and we stayed home. We had the most pleasantly productive day. Sometimes it’s nice to take a day off the normal schedule.
We did housework and quite a lot of yard work… But that was all after my run.
I was very aware that I was one of those people I see running on the street on Sunday mornings and wonder why they aren’t in church. Ah, well. My Dad didn’t call, so I only had to confess to myself, I guess.
This was the first time I went out with my new iPhone. I have been quite enamored with his little device and I can certainly see why the world is addicted to their smart phones. I inherited it from a friend after he got the 4.0. At first I really wasn’t all that excited about having it. I liked my previous phone just fine and I didn’t think I had much need for one of these new contraptions. However now, I am playing word games online with friends and handling my banking remotely and I really haven’t any idea how I ever got along without it. It’s only been 5 days.
Anyway, Chris loaded all my music onto it, so it replaces my iPod. This was exciting for me, so I was ready to go! And Then….. For some reason it kept skipping songs! I was sure I had it on some sort or search and shuffle mode, but I was having trouble figuring it out while I was trying to get the first mile behind me. Also, I was really huffing it. My heart rate was up, but I didn’t really feel like I was running any faster than normal. I didn’t understand.
Well after I reached the mile mark, shaving 15 seconds off my normal time, I realized, I must be pushing a little harder than I thought. I needed to relax because I was going for distance today.
With the first mile down and the iPhone situation situated, I felt like I should have been catching my stride and really getting into a groove, but no. It was torture and it didn’t look like the torture was going to let up anytime soon.
At the halfway, I decided I would walk about half a mile. Typically, I stick to my 4 and 1 program pretty strictly when I’m doing distance because if I can't run for 4 minutes, then something has got to be wrong.
Well, it didn’t seem like it. I wasn’t feverish. The weather was its normal SoCal perfection. The air quality was good. I didn’t have Sarah with me. I wasn’t hungry or dehydrated. I wasn’t overly fatigued. No serious knee, back or Achilles Tendon issues. It was just a yucky run. It just didn’t feel good….. for no reason that I could detect. Guess that’s what I get for skipping church. LOL!
I decided to walk from mile 3 to mile 3.5 and thought “Oh, my goodness! What if I feel like this on Race Day?!” Well, if I feel like this on Race Day, I’ll just have to walk it. But after so much training, if I can’t maintain my 4 and 1, I may breakdown and weep openly in front of God and 3000 strangers! So I did what I’ve been trained to do since I was a baby when I’m facing an obstacle I can’t see my way around. I start to pray:
“Lord, you don’t have to move my mountains, but give me the strength to climb. And Oh, don’t take away my stumbling blocks, but lead me around them!”
The rest of the run wasn’t fantastic, but it was much better after the brief rest and prayer session. Not to mention the fact that the return trip is often much pleasanter.
The last 2 miles were taken at a sprint and by the time I got home I was pretty pumped. So much so that I grabbed Sarah and took her for a one-mile warm down stroll.
Good times!
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