You know what it takes for someone to start running again after two weeks of nothing? One, your boyfriend snickering while asking you when was the last time you ran + a good man reminding you why running is fun.
And for my records and for anyone who might be interested, a few notes on running —
Mindful Running
Mindful running is the best form of running. What it means is really thinking about what is going on in your head, your body, and your surroundings while you run. It means concentrating on your breath, or your inhales only, or your exhales only, or why your little toe is tingling. Your leg hurts? Does it really hurt? It the pain mostly mental? Concentrate on it. We never let ourselves just experience pain. The reflex action is always to stop the pain. I am no masochist (well, for the most part I'm not) and I do not enjoy pain(again, for the most part). I do however like observing pain. And what I'm talking about isn't really pain. It's mostly just discomfort. Yes kids, do not continue running if you experience REAL pain.
So, what is going on in your body? How do your lungs feel? Can you feel every breath? Trying to quit smoking? Just stop smoking for a few days and try running past someone smoking a cigarette. It feels like someone punched you in your stomach/chest/both as soon as you inhale that smoke secondhand. Really does make you not pick up a cigarette again. How about your shoulders? Do you feel tension? What about the tips of your fingers? There is SO much going on in your body all the time, even more so when you do something as unnatural as running(more on that in another post). It's the most fun thing to do, just BE and observe what is going on. I think my yoga practice helps me concentrate on my body much, much more while running.
If you ever get sick of that, it is fun to observe your head too. What are you thinking? "Can I make that stoplight? Can I keep going for another mile? Can I run faster than this guy?" and so on.. It is fascinating to observe the games your mind plays when your body is doing something not as comfortable as complete rest! I sometimes just laugh when I realize I am thinking, "I have to stop", because well, I don't.
And then, there's your surroundings. This is the least interesting thing to me. Well, it is very very fascinating but I would like to understand and completely be comfortable(or bored) with the first two things I mentioned before I can move on to be mindful about my surroundings. It is so much more complicated! The grass, the pavement, the traffic light, the cars, the people, the sky, the weather, the stores, the people inside those stores, other runners, people walking their dogs, grass growing out of pavements, clouds, the wind, the sun, the air, the smells, the sounds and it keeps going on.
The original intent of this post was to write about ALL the different aspects of running I have experienced but I am going to stop here (because I don't write/blog, this is probably the longest blog post I have ever written). I will probably blog again about the others sometime.
