One More

OK, one more running post. One more Bobby McFerrin song. Then I promise I'll get back to the anatomy of Joy's days, at least until the Valentine's Day race!

Here's the Bobby McFerrin song that's been in my head today, again from the Medicine Music album. It's called Discipline:

For those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful...

Later on however it produces
a harvest of righteousness and peace,
for those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful...

Make level paths for your feet
make level paths for your feet
straighten out your feeble mind
so He can make it heal, so He can make it heal,
strengthen up your feeble arms,
strengthen up your weakened knees,
fix your mind on things above
above where we are free
above where we will be...

For those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful.

My little foray into pain-spiced discipline this morning was an outdoor run through gently-falling snowflakes with Joy in the jogging-stroller. I love how smoothly jogging-strollers ride in comparison to regular strollers. I also succeeded in picking a 5K route that didn't have any glare ice. Alas, my avoidance of glare ice sent me up a killer hill. Did I mention I had Joy in the stroller, all 40 pounds of her? Puff, pant, gasp, snuffle. Also I'm fighting a cold (JoyDad has a version of the cold that's been kicking his backside for several days now.) Plus Joy woke up at 2:30 this morning, and so did we. All this combined to add about a minute and a half to my running time. But I did run-jog-fasterthanawalk the whole course.

However... while I'm not quite ready to claim a harvest of righteousness and peace from all this running discipline, I have been doing better at fighting colds this winter. And keeping the deep-blue days of the deep-winter season at bay. My weakened knees even feel pretty good. I will not feel at all feeble when I take my bike commute back up this spring -- already the days are almost long enough for it again, if we get the right combination of good temperatures and good snow-clearing.

I'd have done better to pick a level path for my feet, though.