When Pain IS part of the PLAN.

WHO LIKES PAIN?
Not me.
I do not like ANY pain.
I don't see sappy movies because I HATE to cry. Crying is an emotional trauma for me.  I cried for days after Marley and Me. And Titanic, well that movie almost had me medicated. It HURTS to bad to deliberately make yourself sad.
This whole running thing requires Pain to be stronger and better. And YOU have to put YOURSELF in the ring of pain.

I had serious anxiety about running today. I had convinced myself last week that I needed to run 8X800 meter repeats.
Failure WAS NOT an OPTION.
My stomach was a mess. I prayed for strength and stamina. I reluctantly invited Pain for breakfast knowing it was not the invitation I wanted to give out.
He was going to come in and tear me up. Then try to convince me it was for my own good.

1 mile warm up. I did almost a shuffle jog.
I then toed up at the starting line on the track. I took a deep breath as I hit the start button on my watch. "Let's Go, Nita."
"Dear Sweet Jesus, this hurts so bad." I cried to myself.
How was I going to get through 7 more of those?
On my recovery, I tried to relax my nerves. "BREATH" then I heard myself counting, "7 More".
By the time I had reached my 4th repeat I was scoping out the garbage cans.
"Please don't puke, please don't puke." I begged my body. I would die of embarrassment.
I swallowed down hard and skipped my drink.
My eyes were watering and tears were shooting out of them. I tried to wipe them with no one seeing. It was mostly the shock my body was in that my eyes were watering all up.
"I hate this." I complained and with satisfaction saw my times.
As much as I hated it the times were coming back where I wanted them.

I finished all 8. GLORY BE TO GOD. I am just WOWED by what God does through me. I didn't ask God to Take AWAY my Pain. I asked Him to Help me ENDURE. I knew that I needed to FEEL it. Pain is part of the process for the greater purpose.
I hit my times every repeat. Even when I thought I was going to collapse or trip, He brought me to the end. He gave me exactly what I needed to finish. EXACTLY.

I ran 8 miles total today.
I went upstairs to the smaller gym area. I stretched, rolled, and did ABS.
All wobbly legged, I headed to the locker room. I tool off my socks and shoes then hit the Cold Plunge for 15 minutes.



THANK God I did a good recovery. When I arrived home Andy was waiting for me. He was off work today. He had plans to go hiking at Holdrige.
4 Miles of hiking in snow, ice and muck. It sure was FUN! h
I was hoping to see some deer. No luck unless you count all the deer droppings.

"I have learned it is what you do with your miles, rather than how many you have run." Rod DeHaven



Anita