To God be the Glory

Last week I was feeling really discouraged about not seeing progress in my running ability. It's sad how often I sell God short. If I had just been patient one more teensy little week, my discouragement would never have surfaced. Know why? Because I was able to run this weekend!!!!

It was a beautiful weekend for February in Virginia. Way too pretty to stay inside. So Abigail (my dog) and I set off for the bike trail down town to go on a nice long walk on Saturday. The section we were walking is about 2.75 miles in one direction, so 5.5 miles "round trip." I hadn't planned on running, but it was such a pretty day, and we were out anyway, that I thought I would just try it and see what happened. And lo and behold, 3/4 of a mile later, my knee was just starting to twinge a little!

We went back Sunday morning (after church, of course) and this time I ran a full mile on the way out, and a full mile on the way back! And then I had yesterday (Monday) off, so we went back again and I ran TWO FULL MILES! It wasn't fast, and I'm sure it wasn't pretty, but it was running for a legitimate distance - the farthest I've been able to run since I started having problems in September! My knee was a little achey after that, but I iced it when I got home and I woke up this morning without any pain. Praise the Lord, oh my soul!

I'm incredibly excited for this development, but I think my challenge now is going to be to not push myself too hard too quickly. I need to be content with two miles for right now. I also need to make sure I continue to incorporate strength training and stretching into my regular exercise routine. It's been a long, difficult process to recover from this injury. I want to make sure I don't have to go through it again!

To God be the glory, great things He has done!