Zone and The Art of Running in The Bicycle Lane

Thank God for the ZONE!! 

Today my marathon running training has reached 10 miles!! It is amazing that despite the chest congestion that had me in and out of consciousness - making a blur of the last 48 hours, I was able to get my ass out of bed and get to Griffith Park. The first five minutes of running were painful because everything felt out of whack. My chest hurt, my hands were ice cold, and it was chilly at 7:30 am. However, those five minutes passed and within 30 minutes I was comfortably in "The Zone" that magical place where everything feels GREAT and life has unlimited possibilities.

The Zone was needed this week because as I transitioned from day two to day three of my fabulous smoke-free life, my thoughts were reminding me of how much I used cigarettes to surpress negative thoughts and frustrations. As I lay in bed last night I found myself having mental arguments with people as if I were leaping into the future arguing about some comment or action I suspect they will do. It was quite creepy and showed me just how much anger I have been stuffing down. Luckily, I was able to shift my thinking but it was much more of a challenge fighting off all these negative thoughts. It was a nice wake up call that I need to be more deliberate in my thinking especially as I let go of my cigarette crutch...

I felt a bit of the negativity bug popping back up this morning as I tried to stay within the bicycle lane along Forest Lawn Drive. Then, I hit the zone,and it was as if life made a shift into "Happy Town."

Considering cigarette addiction is one of the hardest addictions to break, I am proud of myself and I am grateful that I have been able to get through these first three days without much drama. Who knows how the rest of the day will fair but I plan to be as kind to myself as possible. There is nothing more important to me today than that I have fun and be happy. Anything less is letting the cigarettes win.