As a member of daily mile I get the privilege of knowing how much training I’m doing… I also get the privilege of knowing how much training I’m NOT doing… its no big deal just had to get ready to pack my house and family up to move across the globe from Arizona USA to Stuggart, Germany. It was just one thing after another get ready for the movers, fix the house, get stuff into storage, prepare to drive 3000 miles to Vermont to hang out with family until our stuff gets to Germany, actually drive cross country…ok you get the picture.
The long and short I realized thanks to dailymile it had been a whole MONTH since my last run.. and I could feel it… in my body.. the restlessness of being lazy.. the jealously and longing I felt when I drove down the street and saw other runners bounding along without a care in the world.. deep down I hated every single one of them. But I realized I needed to stop with the hate and get off my a$$. I went to bed in my running clothes and set my alarm early. I knew if I decided to oversleep my alarm I would have to venture up and face my family in my crumpled running clothes and had to explain myself it would be embarrassing… and if I decided to slip into my pj’s before going upstairs.. it was just.. well pathetic. Luckily my psychology worked (thanks to classes paid for by my rich Uncle Sam) and I was up at what we refer to in the army as the a$$ crack of dawn… only to found myself in a pickle.. it was pitch black dark outside…my dad lives in the sticks… or the country or the middle of nowhere.. there are no sidewalks and streetlights just a windy 2 lane road that has no shoulder (ok it has a shoulder but it consists of the woods) F*&k I said to myself.. what am I going to do now?? I decided to wait out sunrise.. once I noticed faint light appearing I ventured upstairs to lace up my sneakers put my coat on and pound pavement.. then I encountered another pickle…my pants were black.. my running coat was black.. dawn was barley breaking…what I was wearing wasn’t going to work unless I wanted to end up resembling road kill in a ditch.. there is where one of the golden rules comes into play “ask and you shall receive” I mentioned my dilemma to my step mom who provided me with my brothers neon orange hunting sweat shirt. Finally I was ready to go ..I grabbed my Garmin and my iPod and then hiked up to the top of my dad’s driveway (hike is an exaggerated term but you would understand if you have ever seen it) and I attempted to turn on my iPod only to discover yet ANOTHER pickle…the battery was completely dead :( not that it should be that big a deal but as you can tell from my previous dilemmas I’m used to running in the “suburbs” or “city” or “neighborhood” if you will. Running is my chi, my therapy, my meditation, my escape from life.. but for me to find my zen I almost always require the assistance of my iPod.. I carefully select each song to give me a lift, or take me back to a happy memory because as much as I love running if I THINK about what I’m doing, each step my pace my breathing it quickly turns from my happy time to a chore (big reason I don’t do much speed work like most good runners).
I shoved the useless electronic in my pocket sighed and figured it was for the best… I mean I was running on a road with a lot of early morning commuter traffic and I needed to be able to hear approaching cars so I could move out of their way.
I crossed the street so I could run facing traffic and fell into my rhythm.. after a whole month off I wasn’t sure how my body would react but it had been craving this run and was ready to rock.. I just let my legs do their thang and sat back to enjoy myself no ipod and all… and then I realized that running in the country is so much different.. there wasn’t an eerie quiet and the echo of my feet and they hit the ground.. I didn’t hear stressed parents yelling at their kids to stay in bed… I didn’t hear dogs barking at me for coming close to their yards, .. it was a symphony of nature. I could hear the morning dew slide down each leaf the sing song of the birds as they awoke to great the day, the soft snaps of the twigs on the forest floor as chipmunks and rabbits walked along. I swear the fog lifting added a crescendo to the morning and the mist fell lightly on me as I trotted down the road. It was so peaceful, the most peace I have felt on a run (especially without music!) in a long time I made it to my turn around with 10 minute miles… granted I only went about a mile and a quarter but I hadn’t run in a month and I had a hard time keeping up that pace even when I was running on a regular basis…I had achieved euphoria aka runners high and it felt gooood!
Once I turned around to head back home I realized why my time was so fast… I was going completely downhill… and now my trip was completely uphill…. Nice… I had no other choice but to let myself get lost in the sounds of nature to help keep me distracted on my way up.. I shut my mind off and just let my senses get lost in the nature around me… I wasn’t a trying to get back into shape running mommy who was fighting for each step up a steep hill after taking a month off… I was a doe.. bounding up the hill through the forest.. my ears open for every sound searching for my breakfast while listening for animals that were higher in the food chain… sounds silly but by transforming my mind I was able to ignore the pain in my legs and the doubt in my mind…as soon as I had looked up I had wanted to quit but what good would that do me?? As Lenny Kravitz says “Once you dig in you’ll find it coming on the other side and once you dig in you’ll find you’ll have yourself a good time”
Also as an added bonus I passed a patch of land that had goats, and their good morning call added a nice remix. I don’t dare say what my pace was going up the hill… but it was a steady fierce climb.. and I did it… my run may have only been 2.5 miles but I felt as elated as I do after any race…I accomplished it, and remembered why I prefer the country to the city and or suburban life… despite the fact that since I left home 10 years ago I have pretty much lived in only cities and or suburbs… just proves you can take the girl out of the mountains but you can’t take the mountains out of the girl
(mental reminder to find a different route for next time.. or better yet run all the way down to the country store and have my step mom pick me up and bring me home!!)
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