I’d like to say I have integrity and continued to run over quarantine, but when I don’t have a race to work towards, I get lazy with my running. Covid-19 canceled a lot of my race plans so I slowed my running to once a week. Now I have a month to prepare for a local 5k. The best part, I can document it here!
Whenever I start running after a break, I run a course I know and time it. This way I have a starting point to compare to as I train. The best part about doing this is you get timestamps to meet when doing speed workouts and a total time to compare to when you run the same distance again.
Fun thing to do to get yourself out of a lazy slump. Run the course you got your best times on. I run my highschool cross country course. Seeing how slow I’ve become is the perfect punch to my pride to get motivated.
I had a fun punch to my pride in my time trials this weekend. I ran a 5k in 23:09 which is good, but I was well below 23 only a few months ago. So all the winter running accomplished nothing. Nonetheless, it was a great run with some quality reflection time.
My Run
Running through Pine Grove along canal street and past friend’s homes I made it to the track as a warm-up. It was great stretching on the turf track rather than the asphalt I had been stretching on during quarantine. It was my first day back on the track since the school opened it and I was about to do what distance runners hate, laps. I normally love mountains and trail runs, but what better time to do a track run than after months apart from it.
The Things You Think About On A Run
As I rounded the 5th lap a thought popped into my head, “I’m glad I’ll never be a professional runner, that would be a ton of work.” Immediately after thinking this I almost laughed if it was not for my labored breathing and definite cramp from dinner attacking my stomach. What profession isn’t a ton of work? No matter what success you pursue, you have to work your butt off. I think for me I’d love to be a good enough runner that a business pays for my races so I wear their jersey or something, but running as a profession? Definitely a career I would never pursue (especially clocking in at 23:09).
What’s funny is, the hard work of running motivates the other areas I’m working towards. It’s so funny how something that is one person’s job is another person’s passion and maybe even another person’s punishment.
So here is my question for you: What is running to you? A career, a passion, a punishment, a means to an end, or something else?
For me, running is a mixture of nostalgia, mental processing and a means to an end. The end being motivation, clarity and the freedom to eat a bit more.