Running and I

This week has not been a particularly great one. Wacky schedule, poisonwood attack, allergies in the small ones...and I've been sitting on my butt for most of it. I haven't run in about ten days, and wasn't going to do so today, either. But then I mentioned to Oliver, right before I should start dinner, that I was dragging around all day and hadn't been running in forever. He told me to just go. I almost didn't, but I'm glad I took his advice.

Four miles later, I think I've realized just how much running has become not something just to get back in shape with, but something that keeps me sane. I felt a million times better when I got back. Even that familiar ache in my legs is making me smile right now.

It's a good feeling to finally move past "exercising to get into shape" to "running for fun". I mean, I've always enjoyed running, but starting out was painful. Especially after having gone through two pregnancies without working all that hard in between. I think it took three months before I started saying, okay, I am feeling good. Now, nearly a year later, what a difference!

I hope this means this is going to be something I always fight to make time for. It's too easy to get lazy about exercise, especially if it seems like work. Today, I ran because it felt good and I didn't think even once about how my stomach is never going to be the same after having kids. I better get some sleep tonight; my running shoes and I have a date tomorrow. I'm going to break that five mile mark if it kills me.


P.S. Dinner was pizza from the only eatery on base (other than the galley). We took a chance because the place has been improving over the last few months. It used to be you would order a sandwich, then wait over twenty minutes with no one in sight for it to be made. The pizza has been particularly terrible, which is why we haven't ordered one since a month or two after we moved here. So, due to the improving menu and better options, and my sudden craving for Hawaiian pizza and wings (ironically, all this not eating meat has made me snag some when I can), we ordered some tonight.

The verdict? While the toppings have improved, they are still using the same dough, which is basically a circle of frozen pizza dough that looks like one of those poorly done boxed pizzas. There is no crust formed on the edges, and the bottom is clearly not cooked with cornmeal, which makes a huge difference. It's kind of a like a cracker dough, really. Nasty. I don't think we'll be trying it again.