We don’t even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. In times of tragedy, of war, of necessity, people do amazing things. The human capacity for survival and renewal is awesome.
–Isabel Allende

One definition for renewal is an instance of resuming an activity or state after an interruption.

That describes my life right now in so many ways.

We are working on getting to our new normal. I won’t lie: the last 6 months of 2015 were hard, the last 2 really hard, and december was just hell.

So we, as a family, in ways that have nothing to do with running, are trying to find our new normal. How much to feed Lola, who actually does need some fattening up? Do I feed her a noon meal, as she’s come to expect because Chester got meds in his, or not?

Getting back to grooming her on a more regular basis. Taking her to the park, weather permitting, because now my time isn’t being sucked up taking Chester to the vet.

And so on.

It’s time for renewal with my running, too.

I take an off season after my last half, or in this case, that last 15k. I never stop running, but I don’t do hill repeats, I don’t do tempos, and my weekly mileage goes down.

It’s nice to return to running because you simply enjoy running. No schedules to meet, no need to get out in bad weather, running as short or as long as you feel like.

At the moment my next half is scheduled for the middle of May. If I don’t do one before then, there’s no reason to get back to real training yet. But soon, soon.

Soon it will be a time for renewal with my running. For planning, for scheduling, for more hard runs. In the hopes that I can continue to improve as a runner.

I had a good year in running in 2015, but I know that even hard work doesn’t always bring immediate improvement. It can take more than one training cycle to see improvements.

But of course I am hopeful that I will see improvement in my running in 2016. Simply finishing the year injury free, for the second year in a row, would be awesome.

There will probably be some renewal on the blog, as well (I hope). I haven’t had as much time to devote to it as I’d like – just like me to start something big right when I’m in the midst of something! The time I spend on the blog, though, for the most part helps me to take my mind off of missing Chester.

Do you feel renewed in the new year?