My two weeks off are almost over, back to the normal routine tomorrow. The time off gave me a bit of time to do some thinking, to clear out some clutter and organize some things that have been waiting for attention. I got my course updated and ready for students to start tomorrow, and we got the last of the decorations in the yard taken down and packed away for another year; have you ever noticed how there is always that “one” decoration that you miss?
I had some time to enjoy steaming cups of chai, do some baking, savour some good wines, hang out by the fire….and just generally slow down.
Mostly.
I slowed down, except when I wasn’t.
The past week I got in some solid exercise on a daily basis; hike/run/hike/run/hike/run/hike. I’m trying to gently get back up to doing 5km straight without hurting myself again, the hikes are intended to give a day off between runs while still building strength and stamina back up again.
Now I need to figure out how to keep it going.
While I don’t think I’ll ever say, with any honesty, that I “like” running, I think I hate it a little less than I used to. And I certainly enjoy the hikes in the canyon and around the area, I particularly enjoy seeing other locals and their four legged friends. After three years of navigating the trails and local roads hiking and running, there are a lot of familiar faces (furry and not) and there are friendly greetings on a pretty regular basis now.
I also enjoy the changing environment. I’ve run and hiked and walked these trails in all weather, from scorching heat waves, to monsooning rains, to heavy snow, and all points in between. I appreciate them all; the trees that I find fallen across my secondary trails that leave me needing to crawl under or clamber over to the moments of spectacular light that catches me off guard when I come around a corner in the park.
The running…..I don’t suck at it as much as I used to, and some days I think I probably suck more than I did.
Can you get worse at something the longer you do it?
I popped into the library yesterday to pick up a baking book and, as I was walking down one of the stacks looking for it I passed a section on exercise and a title caught my eye. It looks like an interesting read and provides a section on strength building exercises for runners. Analyze your technique (good plan!), prevent injury (excellent idea!), revolutionize your training (yeah, that’s probably not going to happen).
I don’t think of myself as a runner. Sure, I run, but to me a runner is someone who does marathons. I don’t. However, despite my not entirely hating running as much as I did, I also want to be able to keep running and hiking for a lot longer and I’m realizing how much easier I can hurt myself at this age, and how much longer it takes to recuperate. So….time to do things a bit smarter and think about this from the right angle, a scientific perspective. I’m an immunophysiologist; yes listening to my body is important, but so is understanding the buts and bolts of what muscles and bones are actually doing and going through while I pound pavement.
Maybe, if I can manage to do this long enough, I might someday learn to not just “not completely hate” running, but actually “like” running.
Time will tell. At the very least, all of this has been good for my mental health.
Back to work tomorrow.