Stepping Down

 "Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act." Dr. Seuss

Frozen. I was a ICE CUBE. 

Sometimes we have to go backwards to go forwards. We need to practice the pause before we dive in full speed ahead. 

Life is crazy. It is a rat race out there. 

Obstacles.

Distractions.

Obstructions. 

Interruptions. 

We are all trying to find balance. 

I keep life down. I think it is important for me to just settle into a pace I can maintain. When I pick up the pace in life, I say things that are more absurd than my normal garble, get overwhelmed, feel defeated and get depleted. 

When I overextend my energy, I get burn out, misbehave or have mishaps.  These unfortunate responses lead me into the hurt locker, never a fun season.  

I enjoyed a running date Andy at Kensington last week. 

"Anyone can work hard. The best have the discipline to recover." 

Lauren Fleshman

Running isn't much different. That is why I chose to do a step-down week to recover. 

I can't say I'm the best, but I can say I am trying my best.  

My body was tired. 

My right shin was giving me some trouble. 

My piriformis is angry from strength training. 

And I am so sore, this 49 year old body is feeling beat up.  

I have had several 50-60 mile weeks. 

I usually take 2 days completely off but this week I took 3 days off and LOVED it! 

I knew I needed to preserve the balance of stressing out my body and recovering it. 

If you do not recover properly after training hard despite what you think, you will not get any faster and only make yourself more injury prone. 

Taking a step-down week can help you keep injury at bay by allowing your body to recover and repair micro tears and damaged tissue. 

A small decrease of 10-15% can be monumental. It might not seem like a lot, but a little bit makes a BIG difference. 

A down week helps keep me mentally as well. I want to LOVE running. I am so blessed to be able to run that I want to do it with ZEAL. I want to run as I am running onto the Lord. I want my passion for running to give God Glory. 

In everything I want to honor HIM. 

That means I have to have BALANCE. When running gets out of balance I have to question my "WHY". 

Running has to have proper order. 

Running should never be at the mantle of my heart, that is only for HIM. 

RUNDOWN:

I thought if we get started early enough, we would be able to dodge the sleet and rain scheduled at 10am. 

My running partners met at 7:45 at Rose Oaks. It is a perfect time for me to get up, get into The Word, pray and start the day. 

As smooth as the morning went it didn't take long for my morning to take a dive. Or maybe it was me that took the dive! Not even a mile into the run I slid on a ice patch and hit the ground like a sack of bricks! It was an ugly stumble. I literally laid there for a few seconds trying to make sure everything was still connected. 

We hit our first loop casual, at a conversational pace but that second loop we dropped a gear. 

I didn't even realize it was happening. I just followed the pace and never looked at my watch. 

I didn't want to get in my head. 

"Ohh, your going to be mad..." my running partner commented after mile 12.

"Don't tell me, I am just gonna keep running, I don't want to know." I replied. 

In the silence of my breathing and my feet hitting the pavement I thought to myself, "you gotta stay out of your head." 

As soon as you own your fears, your Fears OWN YOU. 

They become your narrative. I knew roughly what our pace was, I chose to be encouraged by the prospect of finishing strong. Even if I couldn't carry that pace in, I was going to give it a valiant effort. 

And know I didn't let fear hold me back. You don't know what you can do unless you just do it! 

We hit mile 13 and the wind kicked up, sleet began pelting us in the face, my clothes were soaked but I was still holding pace even in misery. 

When we hit the dirt road, everything was freezing. The road was a sheet of ice. We were now running in all the areas we were avoiding in the beginning of our run. We slowed our pace down but we were fighting harder to stay upright. 

We made it in without falling. We finished miserable, but glorious. I got in my car and never looked at my watch, I just knew, I gave God all the Glory. 

 

In Peace, not Pieces,

Anita