The upside of a stubborn streak

As I plodded from my office to the gym today, everything about me felt heavy. My spirit felt heavy. My heart felt heavy. Mostly, my body felt heavy. The weight of the insanely humid 95 degree day (am I the only one that sees the ridiculousness of 95 degrees in October?) was heavy upon me. It was difficult to even propel myself forward. I'm very serious. It was difficult to move. The very last thing I felt like doing was running. In fact, I felt utterly incapable of running.

I was on the phone with my trainer, pouring out my assorted maladies. My lethargy. My heel pain. My heaviness. My fear of injury. My two day eternity since my last run. As he spoke words of encouragement mingled with tough love (e.g. "now is the time you go against what you feel and do what you're supposed to do" and "remember to stretch your feet before and after"), I was thinking, "Ugh... he just doesn't understand what I'm feeling." Every fiber of my being rebelling against his words, silently refusing to be urged onward. But still I schlepped my body toward the gym. I'm stubborn that way.

I hate it when the trainer is right. Especially when the trainer is my husband. Yes, honey, it has been admitted in print - you were right. About the pushing through, about the stretching, about me being a runner.

I am a runner.

I am a runner.

I AM A RUNNER!

Summary of the week:

• Sunday 10/2 -- 3.29 miles with the running group. Wow. The weather was gorgeous and it wasn't even (excessively) hard.
• Monday 10/3 -- a little one on zero racquetball. [sigh] I really need to find a partner.
  
• Tuesday 10/4 -- 2.1 miles at the track. 5 minute run, 30 second walk for 30 minutes. Then I got my flu shot.
• Wednesday -- rest day. Pick a reason, any reason: son home sick, arm achy from flu shot, heel pain, general depression. Any excuse will do.
• Thursday 10/6 -- rest day. Totally legitimate reason: cowboy tacos with Suzanne. We talked about running...
  
• Friday 10/7 -- 2.4 miles at the track. 5 minute run, 1 minute walk for 30 minutes. The first mile was way under my typical 12 minute pace. Woo-hoo! The trainer calls this progress. I also stretched before my run, as instructed, and did not experience my usual stiffness and long warm-up period. The trainer calls this him being right.
  

Goal for this Sunday's group run: 4 miles.