November 4th, 2010 – 3.50 Mile Hike

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.”

I have been (semi) good about resting and not getting much running in while I am supposed to be submitting to this doctor-ordered rest. But tonight Sean offered to do a hike instead of our normal run. I had to take him up on it because I’m starting to go a little stir crazy. I mean really, you wouldn’t like me if I didn’t run. Also, I am starting to get really annoyed with myself and the limitations that my flesh puts on me.

Well, until the next life, where I’ll get my perfect body, I’ll just have to make do with the one I’ve got now. Don’t get me wrong, as bodies go, it’s pretty fantastic and I’m grateful for the temple God’s blessed me to walk this world in, but at the moment, it’s letting me down big time!

We started this hike with the understanding that I was at about 80% and may not be able to do very much. Sean was *really* cool about it and offered to do a trail that he often does with his dog, Girl. It has some elevation but was relatively flat. The entire loop was about one mile which sounded perfect to me. No matter what went down, I was positive I could do at least one mile, so we set out.

Before we started I strapped on my ankle and knee support, thinking that would do just fine. The knees were great but the ankles and heels were in excruciating pain by the time we were done.

But it felt *so* incredibly good to be out there. We were at a brisk enough walk the entire time. I have to thank Sean for hangin’ with me because I know there were times when he wanted to just break and run and just leave me there. I wouldn’t have blamed him. There were times when I could barely stand it, I wanted to run so badly. But it became obvious almost immediately that I was not in good enough condition to run and what I thought was 80% turned out to be more like 40%.

We did the circuit 3 times for a grand total of about 3.5 miles. It wasn’t a total waste. Even a bad workout is better than none at all. It felt so great to be out there. Did I mention that already? The weather was awesome and the temperature was perfect.

At the moment, I’m unreasonable enough to think I may never get to do another half marathon again, but we’ll just keep praying about it and working toward getting better.