Miles This Week: 7.5 (Sunday's long run: 5 miles)
Miles To Date: 20.5
A measly collection of miles this week - illness, knee troubles and work conflicts conspired to keep me out of the gym and away from the five-mile Sunday group run.
I made it up this morning: five miles. Took me an hour, but felt good.
The running-five-minutes, walking-one-minute thing, I'm finding, is awesome - not just because walk breaks are energy breaks, but because it gives me something manageable to focus on: Run five minutes. Walk one minute. Run five minutes. Walk one minute. SOOOO much easier to deal with, psychologically, than: Run for an hour. I'm sure, physically, I could do that, but on a treadmill without an iPod... unbearably boring.
Gyms always have magazines in the cardio rooms. I always want to read one - but I can't imagine how anybody is capable of reading with a racing heart rate and fatiguing muscles. Still I have to always stop and pick a couple up on my way to the treadmill. They sort of keep me company, somehow, and give my mind something to hang onto - just the IDEA of a magazine is enough - even if I never open them up.
Five miles. It's a nice square number. It's a UNIT. 26 miles is sort of hard to comprehend – but five of what I did today, plus a little change, is something I can sort of get my head around.
A couple of months ago I joined a friend at her zendo for zazen practice (that would be: zen meditation hall, for meditation practice). I don't meditate on a regular basis but I've done it enough to be familiar with the challenges of sitting still - watching my attention travel from the knuckle that wants to crack, to the itch on my foot, to the tension in my shoulder, and so forth.
Running is just like that, insofar as it creates a self-enclosed time and place in which one can actually feel one's body, and its changing comforts and discomforts, in a way that is simply about observation. Little tweaks and twangs and tensions make themselves known and then go away: right knee, left hip, left ankle, gut, lower back... I used to panic at every little pain, but now I see that most of it is just about my body waking up and adjusting to the new work I'm asking of it. Generally none of the little aches and pains last more than a couple of minutes. There are moments in a run when my energy is really ramped, and other moments when I feel sluggish. I just keep going forward, and it all flows in and out of itself: the lovely rhythm carries me.
Of course, not every pain is little. I had a tightness in my left hip flexor today (not the hip that was injured, interestingly enough) that I've had on other recent runs, and I took thirty seconds of one of my walk breaks to stop and stretch it out. I think if I hadn't done that simple thing, I could have hurt myself before finishing the distance. Really, it's a practice of LISTENING – listening to your body, and with enough listening I believe you can learn to tell the difference between the pain of minor adjustments and the serious pain of imminent injury.
2 comments:
I started running once a week about 2 months ago. I totally get what you are saying about magazines. I can bareley breathe let alone read about the latest anal bleaching craze and how Paris Hilton did it to her Chihuahua. My wife and I use the gym as our recycling station for old Cosmos, Newsweek, etc. And people read them...and steal them.... I am impressed with your 5min run/1min walk. I started out at 2min walk/1min run, now I do the opposite. Its getting better. But alas, I am 250 fatty pounds of pure gristle. I did 3 miles in 35 minutes the other day and had to keep my inhaler handy. My heart rate was 186.....You give me hope. Keep it up!!
Josh, I cheer you on. It does indeed get better - almost like magic if you just keep doing it. 3 miles in 35 minutes is very close to where I'm at right now, and I have considerably less to carry than you. That's damn impressive, my friend. Seriously, I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend looking at Jeff Galloway's book (he's got a bunch but the "Galloway on Running" is the one that I started with years ago). Just as something to refer to and give you some food for thought about running - it's really made for people who are new to it. It doesn't take long to get addicted to the endorphins, either. Weird and surprising. Keep me apprised of your experiences and whatnot! It's fun to be connected with other people who are doing it too.
Anal bleaching, eh? I'll have to give that a whirl.
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