Contentment.

"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am..'

Philippians 4:11     

Sometimes, we get ahead of ourselves. We bite off more than we can chew. We jump the gun on making decisions, or we get caught up in the fast lane of trying to keep up with what others "appear" to be doing. 

I have been guilty of it all. On multiple accounts. 

Most of us runners are overachievers. 

When it comes to training, we read the books, we order our subscription to "Runners World", we map out our training guide and make sure we have all the proper gear to succeed. 

And there are still yet a few of us that even exceed that list and go above and beyond. 

I am guilty of that as well. 

Why do 2- 20 mile runs for marathon training when you can add 1-22 miler in there too? 

Back to back long runs for a 50 mile ultra adding up to over 50  miles in 2 days? I mean why not? It seems reasonable, and I am sure that is on one of my training manuals....somewhere. 

But this year, so far, I have my miles down compared to last year. 

Last January:197.05

This January:164

Last Febuary:148.85

This Febuary: 150

And I am not fretting over the miles. 

Last week, I had a whopping 33 miles. OH well. 

This week I came out of the trails with a odd number, rather than run the parking lot to get to the next mile, today I hit STOP and was good  at 13.22. 

Last Sunday, I had an epiphany. I took out to run 10 miles. My legs felt so good, I took off speedier than I realized, before I got to 1 mile I had a head check. 

1. Why am I running so fast? I have 18 miles to run with Lacey tomorrow, I can not damage our long run together. 
2. Why am I running 10 miles anyway? I am training for a marathon, not an ultra.

I chewed on these thoughts for a couple miles. I found myself actually smiling with contentment at my thought process. I don't need to log a ton of miles. I need to run smarter not harder. 

Finding contentment in my training is not a destination. It is a journey. Letting go of yesterdays, being free of competing with myself is a lovely feeling. 

Learning to do my best, give myself grace and keep my eyes in my own lane is contentment. 

We had a amazing run this morning. 

We started out with a little drizzle as we hit the roads at Holly rec for 3 miles. Our tribe all arrived a little while later to run 2 loops on the trails together. 

I took the lead which is something I do not normally do. I wanted to be up front to pay attention to my body and have a little control over my pace. I really wanted to run a very steady pace and attempt to run more of the hills.

"Steady Eddy"

By the time we finished up with the first loop, I had a little over 8 miles in. I felt great. Even though I had ran Wednesday I kept my miles down so I could have a strong run on the trails. This strategy proved to be a success. 

I asked how everyone was feeling and how the pace was. Everyone continued to talk and chat and replied "good" so I maintained that same pace through the 2nd loop. 

The second loop, the weather had changed to a steady wet snow and the temperatures dropped. At this point, walking was not good. Because we were so cold and wet, walking made it worse. It was better to suck it up and keep running. As we were finishing our last mile,  I started to walk and I hear "WHY are you walking! Keep running!" I giggled, "Opps." and up I went. 

I loved this quote. Being content doesn't mean I am settled where I am, it just means for now I am where I need to be and I am good with it!

Anita~