I took yesterday off from all exercise to give my legs and body a break.  23 miles in two days was a lot more than my body has been handling so I could tell it really needed a rest.

Rest is important. You always need to listen to your body when it tells you that it’s had enough.

I ALMOST talked myself out of another run today. I came home from work tired and exhausted. I wanted to do just about anything other than run. I ate dinner with the husband and then he went upstairs to study.

I sat there for almost 10 minutes trying to figure out reasons why I could take off, and then it hit me: “what else are you going to do for 1 hour that is going to be any better than working out!?”

I could’t think of ONE thing. 

I laced up my shoes, changed clothes, stretched, and got out the door before I could talk myself out of it.

I ended up running just over 6 miles and much quicker than I expected.  I told myself to go slow and steady and I honestly thought I was going over a 10 minute mile, but I surprised myself!

Please excuse the extremely blurry picture, but you can’t even tell just how sweaty I was. It had been raining most of the day and cleared up right before I started running. I also wore a long sleeve shirt over this because it was kind of cool. I warmed up fast and was dripping sweat by the end of the run.

Here are my take aways from today. 

1. When you don’t want to workout ask yourself what else you could do for that amount of time that is more important than your workout?

2. You will ALWAYS been in a better mood once your workout is over.

3. Your significant other will appreciate being around you MUCH more after working out. (Sorry sweetie!)

4. YOU CAN DO IT. Don’t sit and think about it just get out the door and go!

Finally I will leave you with my focus for the week. It has nothing to do with running or working out. It’s simple – I am trying to choose joy in everything I do. When my days are crap and I want to quit – I will choose joy.

It is not always easy, but the longer I work on it the better I will become! YOU are the only one who creates your life. Make it a joyful one!

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