Since then, I've moved, changed careers, gone back to school...in short: my life turned upside down.  And I fell off the wagon, and fell hard.  Working out is a lifestyle.  It gets to where you don't even really think about doing it.  It just appears on your list of things to do: "buy milk, do laundry, take out trash, 3 mi. run."  It's natural.  You don't seriously consider not doing it, any more than you consider not taking out the trash.

But if you take working out from your routine for an extended period of time, it has ceased to be a lifestyle.  It doesn't come back easily.  I'm learning that right now.

The run: 1.5 mi.

If mile 22 of the marathon is a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale, then this is ringing up a good solid 7.  It hurts, bad.  But, the good news is that I'm expecting the pain, I know what it is, and I know how to run through it.  It's the mental game of the marathon that I've still retained after all this time away.

I have decorated my calendar with all my runs for December, including rest days.  I check off rest days just like running days.  This is a psychological move that I developed while marathon training, to make rest days count every bit as much as the running days count.

First weigh-in on Monday morning!  I'm tracking my "ham shrinkage" on a weekly basis.

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