Runner Interrupted

Greetings, Tribe!

It was one week ago that I was sitting in my living room, having tea with a friend, and a loud boom and a bright flash of light shook the house, knocked over a patio chair and blew the power out. The next hour would be a whirlwind of us evacuating the house with violin and viola and work bag in tow, and the fire department rushing in to save our house.

I feel so blessed that our house was not greatly damaged (a small fire, small hole in the attic wall to the outside and one broken HVAC unit), but boy did it throw a wrench in my schedule. Yes, that's where my brain immediately goes. I think God has been trying to teach me patience and flexibility this past year, and clearly I have not been listening so it took a literal act of God to wake me. I cancelled violin lessons last week. I never cancel lessons!! As I was waiting for electricians and repair people to come, I actually sat and caught up on some Runners World Magazines. From 2015!!! But I finally listened. I took time to relax and spend quality time with Adam, I faced my fear and rescheduled violin lessons, I slept. Well, not at first (it took a while to figure out how to keep our air mattress inflated as we're camping out in the living room until the air conditioning is fixed on our second floor), but I listened to my body and slept. Being physically spent from having to clean all of our carpets to being emotionally spent by this huge speed bump in life. That being said, I still somehow managed to get four workouts (3 runs and a strength workout) in last week. Not the mileage I had so carefully planned, but I'm at peace with it.

Last night was a sort of fresh start. Sunday was so disgusting that I only managed to crank out 5.5miles, so last night was my long run. I thought it wise to try out my hydration pack before our trial run of our vacation coming up this weekend. Took me my usual 4.5 miles to warm up, and I definitely started out slower than normal with the weight of a 2.5L hydration pack, but it was a fantastic 10 mile run. The humidity was down, my friend Betsy passed me a couple of times on her bike with words of encouragement, and I now feel back on track with my training.

I have never run with a hydration pack before, but this might be my go-to for long runs. It was SO nice to not always have to stop for a water refill (I usually carry a handheld bottle), my water was cool the entire run, and I was encouraged to drink more water more often to lighten the weight of my pack. What's not to love?!

Less than 12 weeks to go….