Day 345

When I’m not running children around or running around doing gardening, restoration, and chicky chores, I'm running.

Literally running.

I've been fortunate enough to stay relatively healthy as I grow older. This has helped me find a new passion. For a while, I was able to take that passion and keep a somewhat consistent running schedule.

Until we bought the farm.

Pre-farm, besides being in a formal running group, I had a small group of running associates that would keep me actively running throughout the year all over Menomonee Falls. I also ran several organized races from 5K’s to half-marathons. Though I was somewhat of a late bloomer in the running community, running became an activity I thoroughly enjoyed because it offered exercise, a break from the stressors of life, and a challenge to continually improve.

When we bought the farm, I was excited to learn new running routes and get to kow my new community with running feet.

However, the chores, responsibilities, and exhaustion associated with them put running further down the line of priorities.

Way, way down.

Though the responsibilities and chores haven't gone away, I've become more efficient with how I accomplish them. Plus, I’ve re-prioritized running as a way to improve my physical and mental health.

Getting back into the swing of things can be tricky. It’s very easy to make excuses and avoid, avoid, avoid. When running alone, it is much easier to give up and be distracted by other things that need to get done. In my running group, I can be a bit of a chatterbox. It's great to have adult socialization, but it also distracts me from the thoughts of finishing early. It forces me to push myself to be better. I look forward to pushing myself more regularly from here on out. When the land isn't wet and soggy, I hope to add much more trail running to my repertoire.

I prefer running when it's cold and end up running early in the morning or later at night.

If you see a somewhat slow-paced, brightly colored guy running against traffic at either 5:30 in the morning or 9 at night, make sure to say hi.