A Little Rambling

Wednesday, February 17, 2016 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Grab your coffee and pull up a stool! Truth be told I actually have a tall glass of water to go along with my coffee. There are so many benefits to having water go through out system. There is only one downside of to all the coffee and water I drink but, that’s the way it works. Small inconvenience for better health. This week I finish up here in DC and will head back to New Hampshire Friday. I am looking forward to a Saturday morning run with our NFLR Dover running group and then a long run with Doug and Jennifer on Sunday. Saturday mornings are always fun and I have missed them while being away. As I mentioned previously, I will fly out Monday morning for a 5 day stay in El Salvador and will happily return for the Saturday run the following week. My air travel continues after that as I will be back in the air the following Monday, flying to Kansas for 4 days and then thankfully I will be back in New Hampshire for an extended period of time. No doubt I will be spending most of my time on treadmills while traveling. Pray for my travels please. Last night I was back out at the track here on Joint Base Anicosta Bolling. It was 50 degrees so I was able to wear shorts, though it was somewhat chilly because of the wind. I got to the track early enough that I enjoyed having plenty of bright sunlight and that is certainly better than cold and dark as it was last week. I will not lie, repeats are not fun by yourself. I certainly gave thought to quitting after my first repeat all the way through number 9. The great thing about having running mates is that you do not want to be that person that quits. It is also easier to have someone to chat and even commiserate with. By myself I am left totally to my inner voice telling me that I don’t have it today or that it is a okay to do fewer than the self-imposed plan. Who will know? Of course I kept moving one repeat after another and eventually despite feeling tanked, I pushed through the 9th and final repeat. The feeling I had as I finished my cooldown was amazing! That is certainly a feeling I need to ingrain in my memory bank and pull out during future runs. Why is it that we know how great it feels to accomplish a run, yet we find excuses to skip or cut short a run? I am certainly guilty of that with both running and strength training. I feel so awesome so far this week as I have done both my strength training and my repeat workout. Let’s see if I get back to my room tonight and go right to my strength training. It is such a mental thing even for someone that understands the value of it all. I continue to doubt that it will be possible for me to get to the starting line of the Vermont City Marathon in May. Physically my hip doesn’t appear to be capable and nor am I willing to ruin my enjoyment of running by forcing the issue. There are definitely times I am sure that a marathon is not the best decision but, there are times when my pride won’t allow for me to say no yet. This weekend’s long run will be another telling run as I will increase my total running time and I will gauge my hip knowing that I will have to train for more than twice that much time. With greater maturity, I know it all comes back to accepting what distance is enjoyable for me to run. Time to head out and get my day started. Lots to finish up here in DC before hitting the road Friday. Have a great day my friends! God Bless! Mike