I’ve been pretty bummed about my knees and not being able to keep up with my running goals lately. Last night I ran 4 easy miles on a treadmill, and I was supposed to have done 4 tough miles on hills. But my knees are still cranky (and will be until I get some different muscles), so I took it easy.

I kept thinking: I’m falling behind and being lazy.

But I just bought a book on nutrition for runners, and the author brought up a point I had forgotten. Even if I’m not shaving hours off my marathon time, I’m doing great things here.

A few quotes from the book:

Training increases blood volume by as much as 10 percent. It also increase the number of oxygen-carrying proteins attached to red blood cells.

When subjected to a regular schedule of repetitive impact forces, the bones of the lower extremities remodel their structure to become stronger and denser.

The “program” for the action of running is stored in your brain, and the more you run, the more this pattern is refined to become increasingly efficient, so you can run at faster speeds with less energy.

The heart muscle becomes much larger and more powerful in response to training.

Skeletal muscles adapt to training in literally dozens of known ways.

You get the gist. The point is that running on a regular basis, even if it’s not fast, is taking me places. I’m fitter, stronger, more efficient.

I can think about my experience as a small business owner the same way. Sure, sometimes I’m here plodding along, writing websites and making phone calls and writing newsletters, and I think, “Hey, where am I going with all this, and why so slow?”

But owning a business has some amazing long-term effects on my ability to handle life and career. I came into my business knowing how to write and how to sell. I’m learning negotiation (or really, the art of being silent), accounting, marketing, perseverance, time management, budgeting, forecasting, valuation, diplomacy, integrity and hope. And all those new skills will help me wherever life leads.