Healthy Dose of…

Running Naked

My Nike watch is feeling lonely.

Since I started getting back into running after the Bourbon Chase (I took almost a full month off), I’ve felt like crap.  Heavy.  Slow.  (Recently) cold.  Slug.  Slug.  Slug.  Iceberg-esque.  Ugly.

But these slow build-ups are a necessary evil.  I, personally, cannot train a full year through without taking a significant break (and know very few people that can).   Physical benefits aside, mentally I need the break.  And, inevitably, those first few runs (or swims, or bikes, or classes) back suck.  A lot.

So, when I started getting back into the swing of running, I decided to leave all my equipment at home.   No timepiece or monitor of any kind…just me and my shoes.  Verifying my lackluster performance with a digital readout doesn’t do much besides reinforce my feelings of inadequacy and frustration that I have fallen so far from where so recently was.  For my initial runs, the goal is just to make it.  Do the whole run without walking.  Keep chugging.  And, most importantly, not to worry about not getting back to where I was.  Because I will.

 And so, until I have that first run where I walk into the house and say, “Man that felt good!” (instead of the current “Holy s**t wtf was that”), my watch will be sitting all lonesome-like on my desk, sad and neglected, sending me casual messages with an underlying layer of desperation to come out and play.

I’ll be there soon.