epiphany

Call me an experiential learner. Call me hard-headed. Call be scared to break a pattern for fear I might not pick it back up again. Call me irrational because I'm worried that if I take a break I will lose "it" - "it" being whatever level of conditioning I think I've gained. Or call me someone who might finally be learning a thing or two from her nearly 10 days of vacation (or at least time away from work and Austin and my normal routine). But whatever you want to call me (insert your own wonderful/awful adjectives here!), I feel like I had an "a-ha" moment when I was running this morning.
I really have been taking it easy when I've been away from Austin (I realize that notion might all be relative, so I've been taking it easy for me), and the past two days in particular have been downright "lazy days" for me. Little to no physical activity except eating and lounging and doing puzzles and reading and hanging out with the family. And today, I was ready to run. Literally, the moment my feet hit the pavement I felt like a new runner.
Swift and energized and excited to be out there. The excitement has actually been there all winter (a shock to me!), but today, my legs felt like they were saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you..." the whole run as I jumped over puddles and wove my way through muddy sidewalks and big piles of leaves. So fun! And my time for my measly 3 miles proved that I was going fast...or at least faster for me.
So...yes, some of you are nodding "I told you so" and you can go ahead and say it in a comment if you want to because I totally deserve it. And, I'm warning you now, sometimes I have to learn the same lesson again and again and again. I think that we are supposed to get older AND wiser though so I'll try not to be so slow in my learning next time. And, come to think of it, Chrissie (another great T3 coach who I need to tell you more about) said to get faster and not older. So maybe I'll choose to get faster and wiser. Works for me.