Lenten update

Full disclosure - I am not Catholic. Whew! I'm glad I got that off my chest. That being said, yes, you read the post title correctly this is my Lenten update.  I was raised christian, a mixture of Baptist and Methodist but all of my cousins were raised catholic (long story involving parents who were human and committed human acts which rendered them unable to marry in the Catholic church). For Lent this year I 'gave up' going out to restaurants to eat and recommitted to a traditional training program. The first stemmed from the realization one week that I was throwing away more and more food because it was going bad before I could use it. . .this was a direct result of eating out at least three nights a week, sometimes more. The second was a realization that I was stagnant. At some point I figured out that I didn't need to put in the miles to be a successful marathon/ultra runner. In fact, I actually became a better runner the less I trained with a 'traditional' training program. Here we are, three weeks later and I can honestly say that this has been the best Lent ever. I love to cook. I used to cook all the time. In fact, I used to hate going out - and not just because I'm cheap - I hated going out because I cared about what I was putting into my body. Cooking all of my meals for the last three weeks has allowed me to reconnect with a dormant part of myself and my creative side is flourishing. An added bonus of cooking all of my meals, and eating out less, my alcohol consumption has decreased considerably which means that when it's time to hit the trails in the morning I'm feeling more prepared and energized. And the dedication to a traditional training program? That's given me a sense of self-satisfaction with each and every workout completed. I'm getting stronger again and I can't wait to see what happens in the next three weeks.