Milestone

This week I started running long enough to carry a bottle of water with me.  I really don't like running with a bottle in my hand, so I put it off as long as I could, but it's kind of fun, too. It means my hard work is starting to pay off, that I'm getting better and stronger. I also have a little more "trail cred" with the other runners I pass along the way--I look a little more serious.

The running is going well, I suppose. I am a creature of habit though, so I'm worried about the upcoming change in schedule (Meg is almost done with pre-school for the year) and especially about all the traveling we have planned in the next few months. I've almost never been able to keep a up on my running routines when I travel.

However, I'm having fun! This is the best running I've done since Meg has been born. I'm  a little older this time and my body has delivered a child, so things are behaving differently. I have come up with some "running revelations". These are either new to me or I've only just realized them. . . 

1. I run best in the morning on a cup of coffee and a banana. 

2. I run best in perfectly comfortable light humidity at sea level (duh)

3. I do not run well in the hot, high altitude desert where my parents live. 

4. Deep squats really do help my knees feel better (bloody evil things, those squats)

5. Nothing will ever make my ankles feel better

6. But stretching is truly key to ankle and knee survival

7. Hills are best run at the end of a run, when my body has woken up.

8. White carbohydrates kill my tummy (goodbye pasta)

9. Speaking of my tummy, it will never, ever be flat.

10. But I will keep trying. (AB Ripper X!)

I'm not ready to sign up for any races, which I know is the next "milestone," and I don't really know what my goal is for my running. For now, I'm just enjoying the scenery, pleased with my freedom, proud of my gaining strength and happy to listen to my iPod playlist in solitude without someone begging for Twinkle Little Star between songs. 

A flat tummy at some point would be nice. Now that would be a milestone!