Of Breakdowns and Breakthroughs

The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind around here (just like for all of you, I would imagine!).  The end of the month is always a crazy time in our household--my husband sits on several different boards and ends up having meetings galore at the end of every month.  Add in Thanksgiving, the usual kid stuff, and the fact that both he and I are trying to accumulate some major mileage to get ready for Ragnar . . . complete and utter chaos!

We also had a news story hit really close to home during the week before Thanksgiving.  On Tuesday mornings, I usually drive the boy to school so that we can head to the Y after for my favorite circuit class.  But as I let the dogs out, I noticed the traffic on our little community's road was gridlocked.  I thanked my lucky stars that we lived within walking distance and off we went.  By the time I had dropped my son at school, traffic was backed up in both directions, and it became pretty apparent we were stuck in our community for the day.  We assumed it was an accident.  Then the news hit that a 13-year-old was shot on a school bus by a 15-year-old.  1.5 miles from my front door, in an area we walk/run/bike by on a daily basis.   News like that always saddens a community and makes you grateful for the things you have, especially so close to Thanksgiving.  But that night, we found out the accused shooter lived six houses down from us.  Commence breakdown.

Its really, really scary when stuff like that hits so close to home, quite literally.  Its hard not to what-if yourself, especially considering the kids and I are outside on a daily basis and we (used to?) feel really safe in our little community.  It has always felt like living in a small town living here.  There is so much icky stuff out there in the world, its sometimes hard not to let the fear win.   In the end, a dreadmill workout was required to get my head a bit clearer and stop thinking of all those what-ifs.   Seriously, how did I cope with anything before I started running?

 source: I <3 to run

Thankfully, Thursday meant Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house away from home.  I've never been so glad to leave my little neighborhood in my life.  And that's saying something, because I'm a homebody.    The friend we had dinner with is a former neighbor and my very best running buddy, Jess.  We trained for our first half marathon together, and its been tough not having her for a running bud since she moved.

She's faster than me, and drug my butt along on what ended up being a super fast (for me) and fun 5K run.  I have problems pushing myself when I run alone, and it was nice to look down to see a 10:30  min/mile pace for the duration of the run.   I hadn't run that fast over 3 miles in a LONG time.  Distance training is hard to explain to someone who hasn't done it before . . . for me, it feels like I put in a lot of slow miles and that I'm not getting anywhere fast.  So it was REALLY great to see a nice time after a training run, and realize that all the miles, time on the road, and time in the gym was adding up to something.  Commence (much needed) breakthrough.  That Saturday I did 12 miles, the first time since my half in March that I've gotten that kind of mileage.

So, yeah.  Weird, whirlwind, emotional couple of weeks. Remember that life is short.  Enjoy it. 

source: I <3 to run

Oh, and if you hop on over to the Tough Chik blog today, you may see a familiar face!

Run on, and Happy December!