As part of my monthly routine, I just added up my monthly mileage for July.
I walked and hiked a total of 113.5 miles. I ran 219 miles.
219 miles.
In the past sixteen years since I took up running, I have only ran 200 miles ONCE in those sixteen years. This was last year when I was training for my forty miler for my 40th birthday. Which makes a lot of sense. Right now I am just training for life.
What I don't quite understand is how ... or most importantly WHY ... these 219 miles were logged.
Usually when I run many miles in a week or during a month's time, I'm going through something in my life. Like a big scary "something". I'm either trying to control my running, while I cannot control another area of my life. Or the movement of running keeps my body busy so that I am forced to avoid something. But I cannot figure out what that "something" is right now.
Other than the craziness of this summer, "catching up on all the fun stuff" from last year and the busyness of being mom and shuttle kids around to activities, there isn't much that is stressing me out right now. My husband and I have been having open conversations and working on making each other a priority during this busy season of life. Even though I rise early most days, I'm getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep each night. I don't feel anxious and have been trying to read my external queues that I normally experience during times of anxiety or a lack of control.
That being said, I have been trying to add a mile or two before morning classes to "naturally wake-up my mindset" -- without adding more caffeine to my morning. And I feel very strong, healthy and confident with my mindset and body right now.
The volume of my running always speaks volumes about where I am at with life. I am still processing this .,..
