When Your Body Has a Mind of Its Own
There are days when going out for a run feels like a personal Olympic journey: the skies are clear and cool, the road beckons, and the body just won’t quit—pounding pavement as if it were air—until it reaches the golden ribbon of victory ahead. And then there are those other days, when everything seems to go wrong. The past two weeks have been of the latter variety for me.
I am usually the crazy chick who envisions a world full of complicit runners, waving my hand with pageant-like flair while smiling at anyone who crosses my path. This month, all I saw were speed demons reminding me that my body has been really uncooperative of late. My pace has eerily slowed and on more than one occasion—even on my regular five-mile route—all I’ve wanted to do was take a breather mid-run to avoid losing my dinner.
Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes. The only remedy is to run more, but at a pace that feels fine and free of undue stress. For me, the turning point on my mental and physical descent came yesterday during our Burke Lake Park group run. Jennifer, Myrna, Heath, Ernie, and I set out for the first loop at a comfortable pace that gave me back my confidence.
I was reminded that my body can indeed do this; that it has done this far, far longer and faster before; and that I have already reached solid personal goals on my life’s running path. That reminder came loud and clear on the second loop and beyond when I realized that Ernie and I had just completed 11 miles in easy conversation. My body seemed to say, “You can do this, babe. Stop worrying—you can’t always win.” As pithy as […]