Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Unwasted Opportunities

Yesterday was Memorial Day, which means that we got an extra long weekend. Normally, I look forward to three-day weekends for their potential. I have a list of plans and expectations set before me. The problem is that I rarely follow through on those plans. The lure of refinishing my dresser loses out to an afternoon spent in the cool breeze of my central air conditioning watching mindless tv reruns on hulu.

That being the typical case, I'm happy to be able to inform you today that this past weekend was not another wasted opportunity. Yes, there was quite a bit of down time, but it was all well-deserved!

On Saturday, I willingly set my alarm for (and actually got up!) 5 am. I fed the animals, walked the dogs, and then headed to the bike trail to get a long run in. I am very excited to let y'all know that I hit a major breakthrough Saturday - 11 miles! I was completely drenched in sweat when I was done, and my hips were a little achey, but my knee felt good and I, in general, felt amazing for having finally crossed into double-digit distances. Praise God!

After church on Sunday, I laid down and rested for about an hour or so, and then I got up to tackle a project I'd been putting off for months and months. Last fall (maybe?) my neighbor's tree fell over the fence and a portion of it landed in my yard. He chopped it up with a chain saw, but never removed the branches. As spring sprang, in addition to a huge mess of random brush, grass and weeds also started growing up in the crevices of these branches until they were two to three feet tall. It took me three hours of sawing, clipping, and dragging, but I was able to clean up that corner of my yard and deposit the brush by the road for Monday's pick up. I also took the dogs on a four-mile walk since they were such good sports about the whole thing.

On Monday, I let myself sleep in a little (until 7!) and then took the dogs hiking at a trail about 40 minutes from my house. The trail is only about a mile and a half, but the elevation is over 3,000 feet, so it's pretty steep. It took us about an hour to get to the top, and a little less to get back down. The rest of the day was so hot that me and the dogs just hung out inside. In all fairness, I tried to take them for an afternoon walk, but after two blocks, the puppy laid down in the shade, so we just went home. :)

I didn't get in a lot of running (and there was an issue with my alarm clock this morning so I didn't go this morning, either), but I definitely got in a lot of really great activity. And the best part is that I woke up this morning without any knee pain.

I'm proud to be able to look back at the weekend and not wish that there was something I had done differently. That's the way I want to live my life.

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