Moments ..

My half marathon is scheduled for early March, a week today, in fact! I've been doing a little training, but still I'm feeling rather unprepared. Anyone who has ever run a half marathon will tell you that, when it comes to distance running, the half marathon is an attainable distance. If you run regularly (4-5x/week), you could probably get a half marathon under your belt with a minimal amount of extra training. Since I've neither recently indulged in the regular running, nor the extra training, I had a long run planned for this morning (as a last ditch attempt).

When my plans went arye do an unforseen physiological event last night (more on that another day), I overslept and missed my group run. Initially, I felt rather guilty for not forcing my exhausted, depleted and drained body out of the bed and onto the road. You see, there is something about being an athlete: being an athlete assumes that you regularly push your body beyond its limit. This needs to happen for the body to become stronger, faster and better adjusted to the physical demands imposed on it. As an unfortunate result however, athletes will push themselves even when their bodies are screaming for a rest!

Since my body was screaming for a rest, this was my day of resisting the guilt and loathing that is usually experienced from missing a fundamental training run: after a double Nespresso with almond milk and a visit with the morning paper, my sin was absolved. From here, my Sunday opened up to me. This is often the beauty that comes with welcoming the moment and letting go of diligent planning.

As you can see from the photos on this post, I ended up east of the city today for a little winter hiking, fit with a friend I haven't seen in months, a few great dogs, a little campfire and herbal tea and even cute little snowmen that welcomed us along our path: all the gifts of spontaneity!

Sometimes a little rest and a little less training is the best thing: for the body and for the mind!