I woke up today and felt almost normal. At least I woke up at my normal just before 5am time. I checked my breathing and aches. All seemed a touch off, but good enough. The plan called for 8 easy effort miles, but I didn't feel married to the plan. I just wanted to get out of the house and see what running felt like back in my usual rhythm of life. I know the danger of "oh I'll try tomorrow". Not that there isn't a time and place for that, there certainly is, but trying is important even if the trial ends with not getting further than down the block. Anyway, easy effort miles are the one time I really take "running by feel" serious. Oh, I certainly feel during harder runs and tough workouts, but those runs I use the metrics of my watches GPS, timer, pace data, and the works. A casual 8 miles might sound like a rather brash or conceded thing to say, but it took 2 years of running a total of 3,700 miles to reach the point I could say "just a casual 8 miles of running today".
I took my time getting ready with light dynamic stretches swinging my leg quietly at the kitchen counter, half a banana, and some water. I didn't drag my feet, but on days when I'm not sandwiching a run between sleeping and getting the kids out the door and hustling to work I like to be less hurried in these steps.
I plugged my ears with an audiobook I started last night "All the Beauty in the World". It provided distraction enough while I could still tend to what the run felt like. The first mile is always is the toughest no matter the run, but I know this, and I naturally settle in. I run familiar streets. Down Center then cut through a neighborhood behind Walmart. A couple girls is sitting in a black older model SUV parked on the side of the road look surprised to see me as my headlamp fills their windshield. I'm sorta surprised to see them too. I nod hello to acknowledge their presence and smell the weed as I pass. I run around the back of Walmart. A door is open there and workers are moving palette jacks into the store. We exchange, "good mornings". Ending their shift or starting it? I consider the privilege I have to spend my time running and not loading pallets of household goods most people don't really need.
Things got a little uncertain around mile 6. I started to feel a bit weaker than I normally would during a run of this length. This was further than yesterday and I had at least another mile to go before I made it home. I figured if I needed to pull the plug at 7miles that would be ok, but honestly, if I could do 7 I might as well finish the prescription and do the full 8 miles. As it turned out home was 7.5 miles so once around the block and the job was done.
I've thought a good deal in the past several years of what a gift running is to the body and mind. It is a gift to be able to be well enough to move my body one foot after the other. This week reinforced that feeling in a stronger way than I could have expected.
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