Heave! Ho!

Today’s Route: Byers Avenue
Distance: 3.1 miles

It was a nice cool morning. I wore pants and a t-shirt, and wasn’t cold for too long. We ran down Byers despite some construction going on, but the sidewalks were still open and so we were able to maneuver around the construction without changing our route. Today is Election Day, and as we ran past Newton Parish Elementary, we could see all of the voters getting in early to vote in this historic election. To be honest, I’m sick of the election and can’t wait for it to be over. I know who I hope will win, but it’ll be nice to just not think about it anymore and not talk about it anymore.

But back to running! So I had another minor epiphany this morning. I was running and heaving and I thought to myself that all of the extra weight I’m carrying is just making my running more difficult. I want to love to run, but that’s hard when it’s so difficult. I’m making it harder on myself than I need to because I keep eating and counteracting any benefits I’m getting from running. So basically, it should be getting easier, but because I love to stuff my face, it’s about the same or harder. So anyway, I was just thinking about how my heart and lungs have to work harder to pump blood to all of the extra fatty parts of my body, and how I could be using that same energy to improve my running. So I think I need to be thinking about improving my running when I grab for something sweet or for second helpings. Running is such fun, and I love it and it makes me proud. But if I don’t watch what I eat, and keep gaining weight, then I’m going to get tired of running, because it’ll just get too hard, and that is nothing but a path downhill. So now, today, in the moment, is when I must decide what I want to do. What path do I want to take? How great will it feel to run and feel at ease with it? How great will it feel to run and beat my best times? It’ll feel awesome. No sheet cake can make up for that feeling, that’s all I’m sayin’.

Ok, so it was a little longer blog than I intended, but I just needed to get that out there. If I focus on running better, then I think the weight will take care of itself. Eat better to run better. That’s my new motto.

Oh, and our pace this morning was 9:50. Pretty good.