i am back to blogging. sorry to those faithful followers that i have let down over the last week. wow, what a week. as most of you know, Emily and i have spent the last week in montana/wyoming visiting two of our country's most amazing national parks. It was a very hectic, fast paced week but well worth it. we visited Glacier Park in northwest montana and yellowstone park.
I did not get to do much running during the last week but i did run one morning in great falls, montana. It was a cool morning at about 3000 ft above sea level. the air was a little thin and cool. i thought my lungs were going to burn. however, i did finish the 3.5 mile loop in 32 minutes. my friend let me borrow his gps, which was nice, so i did know the exact distance and time. it gave me a pace of 9.36 minutes/mile. that is not a stellar pace by far, but i will take it for now.
Emily and i got back late last night so i slept in this morning, tried to do some catch-up today (while listening to my new elk calling cd), and ran this evening. without a gps i am not really sure how far i ran but i think it was about 4 miles. i ran for 41 minutes (i think my pace was a little slower than the other day). I also finally broke down and bought a decent pair of running shoes. until now i had been wearing some nike basketball shoes. however, my friend in great falls, who is training for a 1/2 marathon, talked me into getting a good pair of running shoes, they are much lighter, if you can imagine.
so, because of my vacation, i am on the second week of the marathon schedule, which is 3 miles tomorrow and 6 miles on saturday. hope i can make it. 6 miles will be the furthest i have ever ran in one run (that i can remember).
I did happen to take over 30,000 steps during the week (I think i am still in the lead for the health dept. step contest). That included one 4 mile hike in yellowstone and 1/2 of a hike in glacier (~2 miles) that got rained out. Emily went with me on both of those hikes and she kept up the entire time. she did better than i did on my first couple of hikes many years ago.
i am reading a book by David Jeremiah called Life Wide Open: Unleashing the Power of a Passionate Life. One quote i want to share with everyone is this: "it might appear to the world that we are making a choice, but we've known from the beginning we had only one option." This quote is talking about the lives of passionate people and i think it is so true. For passionate people, we only have one way we can do things- fully, and all-out. I get criticized about trying to make things too difficult, thinking too much about things, etc, instead of just taking the easy route. but that is how i have to do things, the way i think is best, not even second best. i want everything to be the best. when i do get a little tired and drop my guard a little, i always regret it. even when things work out just fine. i don't want things to work out just fine.
Another quote from the book (and there are so many i would like to share) says: "Who needs it? If that thought doesn't cross your mind with some degree of regularity, then I question whether you are pursuing your passion after all...passion isn't about a comfortable life or big results; it's about following through with your conviction regardless of the cost." so, to you who live a passion-filled life this is not a new concept for you, but maybe the first time you have heard it put like this. to you who may not be living a passionate life, don't just read these words and think wow, he is right, get out there and put some passion in your actions, not just in your thoughts, you will feel better every night when you look in the mirror.
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