Free and Easy Down the Road I Go

I had hoped to be back on the road before yesterday, but I ended up having to take off an entire week due to my little injury. I spent the week worrying about how the injury and time off might compromise my time and endurance. However, I was delighted to find that my time yesterday was my best yet.

There are many variables that I must consider in order to determine why I achieved my best time to date. (the time off from running, the new songs on my ipod, the new found appreciation for my ability to be able to run, the fiber one bar I ate before the run, the bright, sunny, and brisk Sunday morning) All of the aforementioned variables played their part, but I believe it came down to sheer motivation to persevere over the setback. I needed to prove to myself that I did not lose anything due to my silly injury, but instead I gained something.

I planned to go for another run this morning, but when I stood up at 6:20am my ankle was a bit sore so I decided that the elliptical was a better choice. (not to mention that it happened to be a frigid 17 degrees outside) I was able to complete 40 mins and my ankle thanked me for the choice.

My plan for the week is to get in at least three more runs. I am going to stick to my familiar 3.2 miles, add on mileage, and thus time next week. There is not too much else to report since I have not had the ability to run over the past 7 days.

I will share a few insights gathered during this week of being on the injured reserve list.

• A sprained ankle is surprisingly painful and takes a number of days to heal.
• It is true what “they” say that it takes about 4-6 weeks to turn an action into a habit.
• Running has become a habit for me. (this is most shocking)
• Here is a mini epiphany: I missed the running.

I would like to expound on the last bullet listed. There is a big difference between this non-runner expressing the feelings of missing running and actually enjoying the missed activity. When one is unable to do something one will want to do that something even more simply because we are not able to do it. I cannot say that I enjoy the running, but I can say that I missed the familiarity of the routine of running as well as the daily progress toward a goal.

I will update you again dear readers in just a couple of days. Until that time, I leave you with the words of Dierks Bentley to sum up my goals (at least for the next few days):

“Free and Easy Down the Road I Go”…


Quote for Week 6:“Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks.”