And yet…somehow I dragged my ass outside for something resembling a run. My back has been hurting lately, and that’s generally a sure sign that I’ve been sitting too much and not active enough. The year after I started running I felt so much stronger on my motorcycle, and so both of those things tell me that I need to overcome my stronger desire to sink into the couch and look out at the weather rather than get up and go do something unpleasant, like running, in it.
Running has another benefit. Stress relief. Which is weird, because it’s not like I enjoy it, and I think too much while I run. The exception to that is trail running, because if you think too much while you run on a forest trail you’re probably going to break an ankle, or worse. But I read somewhere that our days are filled with so much stress, much of it minor but cumulative, and our nervous system collects it in a sort of chronic manner because there is often on resolution that turns off the feedback loop. Going for a run, on some primal level, tells your body it’s running from a threat and, when you stop running, the nervous system reads it as having escaped said threat and starts to loop back towards homeostasis.
Is it true?
Maybe. There is some physiological logic to it.
For two years I called it rage running because I was so freaking angry about a bunch of things. Most of those things aren’t a daily issue anymore, but life still has plenty of stress to share and if running helps deal with it in some moderately healthy manner, and it eases some pain in the process (while creating different pain I suppose)…well, then it’s time to get my feet back in action in a more regular manner and put daily activity (run/trail run/hike) back on my daily calendar.
If one doesn’t actively “make” the time to do the thing…the thing is unlikely to get done.
<sigh>
Today was a very wet run.
Some dog gave up its ball and it made for a momentary photo pause a few feet from my driveway, and the end of today’s said torture.
