An Inspiring Afternoon

   Thank Goodness for cross training! It is so amazing what a difference it makes to use those muscles right afterward. Friday's eighteen mile run felt great. What's even better was how good I felt the next day. I have to admit, I celebrated a little with a few drinks and a great meal and was a little worried if I would suffer. Fortunately, that was not the case. So I said "thanks" to my body by doing a fun bike ride through the neighborhood (about 5 or 6 miles) and then taking the dog for a nice long walk. It really loosened me up nicely. Sunday was my day off from training and I was so lucky to have it off from work too. I spoiled my body by doing a whole lot of NOTHING! I watched some movies, wrote some e-mails, just hung out with the wife and relaxed.  It was nice.
   Today I changed up my training a little. It is normally my short run day. I do three miles. This week is a shorter week, so I considered doing a longer run. Instead, I decided to try something new. I sprinted my three miles. Holy smokes! Whole new world of pain. Muscles I don't use very often were abused. But it was enlightening. I have spoken to a few friends recently and am finding that many people have trouble starting slow, and therefore tire out quickly. I, on the other hand, have trouble speeding up. So, today was a day in the life of others. I've decided I prefer staying slow.
What really brightened my afternoon was a talk I had with a great friend, Jesse, who moved away recently. Jesse is actually one of the key people who helped me with technique and training tips during training for my first marathon. Today he called me to ask about how to make a donation and we got to talking about the blog and my awareness mission. He told me how he has been reading the blog and following along. Hearing that is a great thing since I have no idea how many people actually read this. Beyond that, it got even better when he told me that after reading it, he went out and started researching Diabetes on his own and making changes to his lifestyle. I was on Cloud Nine. Mission complete! To know that I made a difference in at least one person's life means that someone else will benefit from their changes - it's that snowball effect. That makes me so happy. Thanks Jesse for the pick me up so close to the end!