Renee Emerson

i had a good run today, much needed after the past two runs being very difficult.

one was difficult because i stayed in the slopey first half of our street near the house (a group of young men were loitering around at the entrance to our dead-end street and i had that intuition-paranoia feeling that i never ignore. they made me uncomfortable, so i stayed away), and the second was after a long day of teaching, with humid weather.

today though was great. it was cool, overcast, in between a morning storm and the still approaching afternoon storm.

i felt like i could run forever. or at least interval run forever. i’m using interval training to get up to running 3 miles straight, which is what i did at the seminary when i was at what i call my fighting weight (not so skinny as my grad-student-weight and not so comfortable as my post-baby-weight).

there’s a free app, C25K, that i use. i’ve lost 3lbs and a jean-size in the past few weeks (not sure how that happened off of just 3lbs) and want to lose about 7 more, since i gained back some of my baby weight over the summer, unfortunately, most likely due to stress (bryan losing his ministry job, all the traveling around, us trying for baby #2 for a few months with no results) and stress-eating. it was a bummer though to have worked so hard to get back to pre-baby weight just to go back up almost 10lbs over the summer. i’ve been working on finding more productive ways to handle stress, not baking-related ways.

so, my running goals: instead of working toward training for a marathon, i’m going to focus on being a little faster than my wobbly little jog. 30 minutes is about as much time as i can commit to exercise any given day. i want to work up to running 3 miles straight (almost there), then work on running faster (my personal best from seminary-days is 3 miles in 30 minutes). i feel like that is a workout i can sustain–ideally running for 30 minutes, 3 or 4 days a week.

besides sustainability, i like that running is free, something i can do with zu, and that i have time to just be in my head. i don’t listen to music when i run, and i don’t talk, i just think. i love that. it makes me almost look forward to going on a run, 30 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time.