Feb 27, 2011

I conquered one of the three terrors of the fire swamp

Whoa, two posts in one day? I can barely manage two in a month and here I go with two in a day? But I digress...

For two of the half marathons I have run, I used Hal Higdon's Intermediate training plan. For the Pittsburgh Half in May I decided it was time to move to the Advanced training plan. I am by no means an advanced runner, but I wanted something that would challenge me more and push me to train harder than I have before. Today was one of the first steps in this challenge.

In the past, I have taken a rest day after my long run day. Yesterday was my long run and it was the furthest I have run in over two months. In the past, I would get to relax and rest my weary bones and muscles today. After running 9.6 miles yesterday, I needed to get in 3 miles. I felt pretty good, so I thought how hard could this be. Oh how naive of me. Those first few steps were painful. And that first mile I felt like I was running through lightning sand in the fire swamp (hoping to never encounter the flame spurts or R.O.U.S's...especially on the trail once it's passable again). Anyway, I continued on my way and finished those 3 (well I ended up at 3.2) miles. Even though I wanted to turn back before I was even at the end of my road (we're talking a whole 0.03 miles here), I kept going. No doubt this will make me a stronger runner.

Double Bullseye...Winner!

Early on in our marriage, after we bought our house, but before the kids, one night a week (at least) would be darts night. We would hang out in our utility room, drink some beer, have snacks, listen to music and throw darts. It wasn't so much about the games or the beer (usually), but about the time together. We would talk about our day, ideas for the house, and plans for the future. It wasn't just vegging out on the couch, mindlessly watching TV.
Somewhere along the lines, after the kids, we lost that night. It's not hard to see why. As with most people, our lives are crazy. We spend most of the day at stressful jobs. After we come home, we cram so much into a few hours. We run, make dinner, spend time with the kids, get the kids to bed and it's all done in a 3 hour time frame.

After that's all said and done, we just want to shut down. So inevitably we sit on the couch and watch something from the DVR and just veg. There is something lost when that's all you do. It's really important to have the simple talks and connect every day. Last week we brought back darts night. I didn't win the dart games (ok I won the first game of 301 and kicked Kevin's butt at cards later). But we got to spend time together in a way we haven't done in a while...and that's what matters.