Today was running day 33 of my 60-day 5k training on my app for the treadmill.
I have been walking/running off and on for a long time now, but this has been my first consistent training since probably 2017, so I was nervous when I made the decision to start Day 1.
Every day, the trainer on the app describes what we are going to do that day. I am always saying to myself, “oh no, today’s the day I am not going to be able to finish,” or “ok, I can do that, but maybe I will slow down the machine in order to complete it”.
But for 33 training days now, I have made it through as prescribed. Plus I have had a full recovery each time ready for the next run.
Running this program has taught me to trust the process.
I’ve made it through 33 days now and the longest I have run now is for 16 minutes straight.
Usually, each session is about 30 minutes, but it mixes the intervals for walking and running and slowly builds up the “long-run days”.
I truly love running, I know I am weird to some people, but it is addicting.
This weekend I knew I had finally hit the addiction level when we planned a staycation at a hotel, and I woke up on a Saturday, packed my bags, and decided I had a couple of hours before check-in…. why not go for a run?!
What?!?! I am on VACATION! What is wrong with me!
Haha, more like, “What is so RIGHT with me?!” (or something like that).
Today we got back from our nice staycation weekend and I could barely focus on work, so I decided to do a run.
A run, midday on a Tuesday, because I couldn’t focus on my work.
I don’t recognize myself right now and I am super excited about it.
Actually, I do kinda recognize myself. I feel like I did when I was 23 and started running for the first time in my life.
I lost my job in the recession, like too many people, and just one month after buying my house.
As a single person with a single income gone, I didn’t quite know what to do, but for some reason among all the chaos I started running.
And I kept running.
I ran my first half marathon in 2 hours and 15 minutes about 7 months later.
The addiction to running started back then, and I have been a casual runner ever since, but it got harder as my weight went up during grad school and slowly I declined.
Today, I feel like me at 23 again.
2020 was my chaos, losing my dad was my chaos, and now the cancer is my chaos and I am running through it.
I literally just got off a video call with my nutritionist from the Mayo Clinic, and she basically said it sounds like I doing really well with all my running and to keep tracking my calories.
My weight is very slowly going down, but my pants are a size smaller, and I just know my energy is a 180 from last year.
I feel like I am getting to be a new better version of myself at age 23, running all over. I can’t wait for the weather to cool down already and take this run outside.
Running outside is where my 5 miles a day came easier back then. A single lap around the lake by my house is 5 miles, and I enjoy it so much, it’s easy to forget the number.
This year, I hope I get back to doing 5 miles around the lake on a regular basis.
God is making a new me (even amongst the cancer).
Isaiah 43:19
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”