For many, it would appear that I have disappeared off the planet the past 6 months. I guess that is true.

Kind of.

Family, work, and life has been busy. Not unusual as I get several messages a week from people that follow me online asking how I am keeping up with all of the activities. What’s the secret? Yeah I’ll tell you that in a different post.

Yes, the dial of life has turned up several notches higher than usual. It’s okay though as I like that.

Just in the past 2 months, we have decided to have a new house built, sell our current one, travel more for work, and get back to running. Finding money for a down payment on a house and preparing current house for sale, with 4 kids, is no picnic. It’s like trying to brush your teeth with Oreos. What’s the point?

What has helped keep me in balance through it all is a recommitment back to running. I wanted to run, but thinking about when, how much, how fast, and where was yet another thing on my plate. I’m that type of runner that says if I’m going to run that day, and I don’t, then I’m stressed and beating myself over it.

My solution? Hire a coach.

Now I let the coach worry about it. I provide my schedule between family, work, and race goals, and she fills in the when and how far. Don’t worry, I still miss runs as life is not consistent. At the same time, getting out to run more has reminded me of the simplicity of running and that life can be.

Doctors will tell you, one of the biggest impacts to your health is stress. Having a family, mortgage, car payment, school loans, work schedule, family schedule with wife and 4 kids that need to be at different places in different activities … tough to not let those stress you out. Stress leads to exhaustion, weight gain, and bad attitude. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Each day is a race of its own that is won 6 inches at a time. That’s the 6 inches between your ears.

I control what I can control and don’t worry about the opinions or delusions of others. Being in a management position, I witness a lot of delusion and people passively throwing others under the bus. Of course they don’t see it and are only pointing out why everyone else is slighting them. Sadly, many of those people get promoted because they have managers who don’t know how to effectively coach them. Blah. Already spent too much time on that.

Running is cheaper than going to the doctor or taking meds. I can control my next step and direction I take. It is my time to re-connect with me and the world. Not the digital world, some screen, news, noise, complaining, blah blah blah … connect with the ground, the views, my place in the world. It’s peaceful.

There are times it hurts and I want to stop. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt, but out of the blue, this loud voice yells “STOP!” Yet there’s no reason to. That’s when I know the mind is trying to mess with me. I laugh when these moments occur and argue with myself.

Yup, flat out have a conversation with myself and laugh at myself. It’s nice to find myself again.

Running again … 35-40 miles a week for the past 3 weeks and mileage on the climb. Look for the guy running down the road laughing.