The hardest step for a runner is the first one out the door.

The last week hasn't been kind to me. The universe keeps shoving me down at every turn and (almost) all of it is out of my control. When my running friend texted me on Thursday and asked if I wanted to do a 4 mile training run on Saturday for a race we have in a few weeks I replied "Yes!" even though I hadn't run in 2 weeks because I was mentally dying to get back at it. Then when my alarm went off on Saturday morning I was full of reasons why I couldn't go: It had snowed. I wasn't ready for 4 miles. I didn't know what I was going to wear. My back hurt. My knee hurt. I was in the middle of a good book. On and on and on. The time that I needed to leave by came and passed and I still hadn't gotten out of bed and then my friend texted me and said she was going to be 15 minutes late. I still laid in bed thinking of all the reasons I should stay there and then with 10 minutes to go out of nowhere I got out of bed, threw on some clothes, and went to our meeting place.

The run ended up being an interesting one because I've never experienced black ice like we had that morning. The course for this race is notoriously hilly and we could barely walk a lot of it let alone run but we still did (most of) it. By the time I was done I felt so much better that I had gone and it gave me the grounding I've been looking for for weeks plus the confidence I needed to know that I can run this race in 2 weeks. I couldn't walk a lot of the rest of the day because my knee and hip hurt so bad (probably because of my stride being weird due to the ice) but it was so worth it. I decided not to run today because I wanted to give my old lady parts time to rest and because I want to start P90X tomorrow but I really wish I had been able to because yesterday's run wasn't enough to carry over to today. For yesterday though it was completely mind clearing.

Sometimes you just have to force yourself to get up and do the exact thing you don't want to do. Sometimes you have to push down every little voice inside, no matter how many there are, and go anyway. Sometimes you just have to stop thinking so much and just get out there and do it. And even if you hate every step in the end it will be worth it, no matter how small of an effort tomorrow. Yesterday I did it. Today I didn't. Tomorrow is a new day. And that's all I can ask for.