
It's worth noting that I'm a casual runner anyway, this wasn't my first foray into what I was doing. I've
done a couple marathon's and about a dozen half - marathons and am signed up for the next one of those in May this year. Any given run can be wonderful, painful, an emotional blackhole, or as I heard someone say yesterday - make you feel like you're a bag of milk - or it can make you dance. I think over the past month I've had at least one of each of those and a few of some. Running is like a box of chocolates, as Mr Gump might say, you never know what you're going to get. Just run, Forest, just run.
The running itself became easier, as I guess the strength in my legs increased. That was a pleasant surprise. There's more than a few days that I don't recall the running part of the run, which given the task at hand is a little surprising. While I tried a second workout on about a quarter of the days, it always came back to me on the next day's run as a really strong feeling of fatigue. Overall however the running part of the running challenge got better.
The route choices were tiresome, as I grew bored with the places I'd run repeatedly. I became an avid user of MayMyRun to find that 6, 8 or 12 km path that was a little new. Wind and therefore direction was a concern as I mentioned that at least two weeks of this was quite cold, varying between -5 and -20 with strong winds. Routing choices to avoid large open areas where I'd have to run into the wind factored largely into the daily decision. Snow too affected where I went, as we have some lovely trails near me, however snow covered, or (worse) water saturated mud isn't really nice to run through.
Injury was ever-present in my mind - I wasn't running to outpace Usain Bolt or anything, but I did track my pace daily and wanted to see some improvement. So I was careful, perhaps moreso than I normally am. I'd stop and walk 20 paces if I felt anything amiss.
Technology was helpful as I track my distance, speed etc with two devices and my little old ipod nano with it's Nike app was key to the success of this. It's screen is broken, and it congratulates me on another 500km accomplished after every single complete effort (which I secretly enjoy), but I can get lost in the podcast, or music and the last half-a-km audible warning is always welcome.
Importantly, I think I could keep going if I wanted. My legs, and back are tired and need a day or two off but it's not a must-stop. That's probably for me the biggest single reward in all of this - the knowledge that if I wanted to, I could continue this. Our own hidden reserves of capability are all too often invisible to us.
The most interesting thing I picked up was the surety that this activity is cathartic for me. Yes, some mornings I couldn't get the sound of my own wheezy breath out of my conscious mind, but the best runs allowed me to deconstruct an issue or problem I needed to think through, my body on autopilot as I could focus into the moment and think clearly, or listen clearly, or even just be in the moment knowing I was lucky to be able to be doing what I was doing just then. I had a few of those days in the past month, and that made this all worthwhile.
No comments:
Post a Comment