This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. And I thought it was going to be hard. But I’m getting there. Last Saturday I ran 5 miles. This past Saturday I ran 6.5 miles. Our pace had us running 1 hour and 11 minutes. Non-stop. It was my longest run ever, beating my run of 1 hour, eight minutes last summer. It was a hard day and a good day.
In about 30 minutes, I’ll be headed out for another run. The first of a back-to-back. Five miles today. Three tomorrow. Then this weekend, I’ll be gunning for eight.
What’s interesting is the idea of the “threshold”. When I was running one mile this winter, my threshold of “I don’t think I can run any further” was around .4 miles. I pushed through and made it to the mile. Then I could run one mile easily, but my threshold was 1.5 miles. This has grown to where last Saturday my threshold was around 4 miles. We got to 4, and I seriously thought I wasn’t going to make it.
But the longer I run, the longer I have learned to realize that there’s a “threshold” for every run. A decision to press over, in, and through the pain. That’s how we train. That’s how I am now prepping for a five-miler. I can’t just stand back and run one mile for the rest of my life. I’ve gotta train, and push through the pain. This even means a weekly trip to the chiropractor and lots of tylenol daily to manage the pain. It’s training my body. It’s good.
What I’m learning as I run about Jesus is that my walk is the same way. I’ll keep writing about this concept through the next few weeks. But think about the idea that your spiritual journey is similar. Which is why maybe we have so many spiritual babies in our churches. They can only run one mile. The difference for me? I’m running with Joel and Nathan. They are literally pulling me ahead. Which is why I wonder if the same needs to happen in our spiritual journey. Maybe we weren’t meant to do this alone.
Oh well, off to another run. I’m still not looking forward to the run. But I’m looking forward to the finish.
