Redefining Normal

Well, here I sit.  It's kind of late, and there is nothing on TV - well, the six channels we have.  I have nothing to do but contemplate life, and I am loving it.  I wasn't going to write anything today, but since it's just me in a quiet, sleepy house, what the heck.

So, what am I thinking about tonight?  Well, mainly how normal keeps redefining itself. About how things that I once must have thought were odd suddenly seem like they belong.

One of the biggest examples of redefining normal, of course, is having kids.  Anyone who has seen the Johnson & Johnson commercials of old knows that having kids changes everything.  Whether those changes are good or bad, I will not argue here.  What is true, though, is that once one goes through that "change," that redefinition of life as we know it becomes the norm.  Was there a time when I could actually use the bathroom without intrusion and angry shouts of "he said, she did?"  I dunno, I don't remember.  See?  It now actually seems normal to have to referee fights from a shower.  Who knew?  

Now, this redefinition of normal is creeping over into my running life - once again.  Did the idea of running 20 miles for no real good reason - other than to say I could - seem "odd" once?  Yes, of course.  But with two marathons under my belt (and 20 of Hubby's), I adapted and now that seems normal.

Somehow, though, Hubby, a.k.a. Distance Dude, has brought a redefinition of normal into our space yet again.  He is gearing up to go on a 35-mile training run tomorrow.  Thirty-five miles,... that's 3-5, people.  It still boggles my mind.  I mean, that is nine miles longer than my longest GOAL distance to date - and it is a training run.  The strangest thing about it to me is that he thinks this is completely normal and makes sense.  Even stranger than that, though, is that I think it is normal, too.  We should probably both have our heads examined.

On a personal scale (which is much smaller than Hubby's), my running life seems to be redefining itself, too.  Prior to a few months ago, running a 5K or 10K race somewhere between a 9- and 10-minute-per-mile pace was amazing to me.  Running a group run longer than four miles and being able to hang with the group the whole time was cause for wild celebration.  Suddenly, though, with the turn of one 5-mile race - where I managed to maintain an 8:41 pace for the whole race, normal was redefined.  I thought it was a fluke, but the past month and a half have shown me it is not.  I am now regularly racing in that range.  Group runs are not as much of a struggle as they once were either.

Normal is being redefined.

Today I had the best impromptu group run ever, I think.  I wasn't even planning on running with a group, but the opportunity presented itself and I grabbed it.  I ended up doing 6.4 miles - of hills, no less - in 1:03.  That works out to an average pace of 9:49 - with my LAST MILE being the fastest at 8:59.  And, there was a lot of walking in there, so I know the running wasn't slow.  In fact, as long as I was moving forward, I kept the watch going.

So, there is a new normal in town; a plateau has been busted.  I don't know that I can really explain why this is happening now, of all times, after having been running for eleven years regularly and when I am coming off of an injury that has really confounded me.

But I'll take it.  I'll enjoy it.  I'll revel in it.  Until a new normal - faster or slower, longer or shorter - is defined.

Happy Running!

Have you had a new normal defined for you lately?  Please share!