Highlight of My Day

We are in that period of time between the holiday break with all of the lights, great food, parties, and end of the year excitement and several months of "eh". Winter months give me time on the treadmill, time running in the dark and/or cold. Not that I mind too terribly. But when all of the factors begin adding up, heading out for a run gets more difficult. Despite that, my training time is still one of the highlights of my day. I'm into week three of real training and my body is starting to respond. I go out and push a few hours of running without finishing exhausted and an overwhelming desire to sit for the rest of the day. Each time I hit the treadmill, lace up for the icy streets I know I'm building strength, endurance and becoming more fit.
Today is rough because my 3yr old is still not sleeping. At 2:30 or 4AM she is wide awake and I can't get her to go back to sleep. I'll get her back in bed, but right about the time I start to doze off, she comes back into our room. So as I sit on hold (waiting for customer service) and writing this blog I would much rather be laying down to sleep. But I really want to get 10 miles in. It is a shorter run than yesterday, one that I should be able to get done pretty easily, but the poor quality "on hold" music is very quickly draining the life out of me.
I gave a very brief (15 minute) presentation about maintaining a positive attitude to a group of youth this week. It is a hard topic to cover in 15 minutes, but it was still a lot of fun. I had just finished 90 minutes of hard spinning so I was all amped up on the post workout energy. Speaking to the kids about a positive attitude has reminded me of the mental training, and ultimately the decision we all have to make. Will we commit to finishing the race? I was trying to describe my race strategy for the Divide 135 to someone the other day. My strategy? To finish. I won't be the fastest. I'll head out easy and maintain forward progress until I finish. Not much of a strategy, I know. But it leads to the finish. Life and training is like that sometimes. You have to head out easy. Decide you'll finish the day with a positive attitude and then simply do it.
I think it is time to go run. And then enjoy the post workout energy.