Running Update: Week 2

I continued my running regimen this week, albeit with less than perfect fidelity. The second week of anything is usually the most difficult for me, for it is then that my extreme sloth strives to take the wheel. I fell in love with running last Wednesday, but already on this Tuesday I wanted to do nothing less than wake up with the dawn and run across the prairies. But still, though it suffered this week, I truly do like the twice daily running. It improves my mood (for I am seldom happier than after a run) and it provides respite from my studies. Despite these setbacks, I did hit my six miles, and I even doubled my wind again! I can hit 1.2 miles without rest; a slight achievement, to be sure, but a worthwhile one, for I have not been able to do this for quite some time. I am hopeful that this pattern shall persist; that next week I shall be able to hit two miles, then four, and then....who knows? bi-daily runs at four miles per run would get me to forty miles a week, which, I think, is an excellent pace for an amateur.

I have also discovered the joys of running in inclement weather and running barefoot. The first week, my ankles were rather sore - due, I think, to insufficient exercise - and running in shoes was uncomfortable. But after superficial Internet research, I decided to give it a try: and it was magical! One may run silently as an animal. As soon as my feet toughen I shall be able to do all my runs this way, instead of one or two per week. And running in the rain? Indescribable. That day I finally hit my 1.2 mile goal, trotting resolutely through an absolute downpour. I have never been more pleased, not even during a nighttime run, though these come close.

All in all, a decent week. This coming Monday, Day 15 and the start of the third week, is likely to be the hardest. But I should easily be able to hit two miles by Thursday or Friday, if only I keep up the bi-daily pace. And then I shall have achieved my first goal: running like Benjamin Adnam.* Six miles this week, 12 miles next week. Let's make it happen.

*Inspired by the account of his post-submarine running regimen in Patrick Robinson's HMS Unseen. Unfortunately, I misremembered. Adnam does in fact run twice a day, but his ending distance is eight miles, twice daily, not two. I may never reach such a lofty goal. 

That Broken Thing

No wonder my generation thinks marriage is broken. No wonder we look at it and reject it out of court. The love of self has completely poisoned marriage and "till death do us part" now mean "until the feelings go away". When the man and woman (or even just one of them) seeks their own apparent good regardless of the other, the marriage is damned.

All I can see when I look at my parents' marriage is misery and pain. My mother thinks my father makes no effort to understand  her, and my father feels she hates everything he does; that he cannot make her happy. Were they wealthy, I have little doubt my mother would leave him.

How does it come to this? How, after more than thirty years, is it reduced to childish screeching and shouting? Why must it be this way? What went wrong?

Can it be made right?

Running Again

I have been running on and off for almost ten years now; mostly off, I'll admit. But getting accepting to Josephinum put a burr in the saddle to make this wretched, treacherous body of mine perform to the best it can, for I am a seminarian in the Church, and so my body belongs to the Bride, not myself; therefore I must forge it into the best possible instrument for the Blessed Mother. So I began running again.

On the third or fourth day of running pathetic, short distances (approx. .3 miles), I learned how to breathe for the first time in my life, and felt like I could go on forever (though I likely wouldn't have made it over two miles, and it would have been good fortune to hit one). I doubled my distance the next day, so now I'm running .6 miles. Monday I shall run .6 miles twice a day, morning and evening, five days a week. Thus it shall be my custom, each Friday evening, to log in my mileage. This was the intro week, so I only did 3.6 miles. I'm hoping I hit 6 miles next week, at .6 miles twice per day five days a week.

It feels great. As if feeling closer to God than ever weren't good enough, I get so darned happy when I run it's like I'm on drugs. It's like grinding levels in a Final Fantasy game, where Level 1 might be a hundred yards, and Level 100 might be several hundred miles. I'd estimate I'm at Level 3. And yes; on Thursday, when I doubled my distance, I felt as if I leveled up, with celebratory JRPG music and everything.

Life is good.

I Am A Seminarian!

On 16 June, I received a letter from Reverend James A. Wehner, S.T.D., rector of Pontifical College Josephinum. I have been accepted! I depart for the seminary on 17 August to begin a two-year program of Pre-Theology, followed by a four-year Theology degree. In six years, by the grace of God and constant intercession of the saints, particularly the Blessed Mother, there shall be a joyful ordination to the diocesan priesthood. The path I began to follow five years is nearing its end - ordination as a priest; thereupon a new path will begin; serving Our Lord as a priest in his holy Church. This path is far less clear, and as my examining psychologist noted, there is no way of knowing just what will happen after I am ordained. Ordinarily, given my penchant for detail, order, and intricately-laid plans, this might worry me, but I have only to fulfill the next step: prepare for my August departure. I have a list of books I hope to read, a distance I hope to run, intimacy with my Lord, his Mother, and my guardian angel I hope to gain, and music I hope to learn. Added to this are letters I need to write and other, less important details. There is much to do.

Yet I am not overwhelmed. This is the most exciting part of my life, and truly, each day is better than the last, for Christ is new every morning, pouring his blessings out upon me anew. Surely David spoke for me when he said "my cup runneth over". In the face of my mounting duties, I am but transcendently happy.

Off to joyful, leisurely labor!