Let’s face it, there are days when working out isn’t going to be part of your schedule even if it is on there. That was me quite often last week. Despite trying to do a 4-week fitness challenge, life just overwhelmed me and I couldn’t dig deep or do any of that cliché “go big or go home” junk. I just wanted to survive. Over the weekend I realized I haven’t run since the 8k and there is another one coming up just around the bend. Except there was no way or where for me to run.
It was time to get creative.
I did what any sane runner would do in a time of need. I ran up and down my street twelve times.
Yes, I did say need. I really needed to run. If I didn’t I just knew the day, possibly the week was going to feel off-kilter. I realized that the loop of my block has no blind spots to my front kitchen windows and I could run up and down my street over and over again while the kids played in front getting about 3 miles in without them getting loaded into the car and trekked to the gym. Motherhood is the necessity of invention. That’s totally how that quote goes, right? The girls thought it was great fun to watch me run by each time using their sidewalk chalk to mark each loop or wave at me as I ran down the other side of the street. Twenty-five minutes later I was done instead of just getting to the gym.
The best part of the whole thing was not disputing with my neighbors that I hadn’t gone crazy but the runner’s high I had for the first time in about a year. I used to get that high frequently, about every few runs, but in the last year it was just gone. Missing. I wondered if I was just running too much. Then too little. Where had it gone? I felt like Samantha from SATC when she lost her orgasm. In a sense that is exactly what a runner’s high is like. The endorphins kick in, your mind and body fuse together to create a feeling of superiority and what seems like an epic performance on your part. A smile creeps onto my face as I run faster, harder and feel a chill run through my whole body. I think, “THIS IS THE BEST FEELING IN THE WHOLE WORLD! I COULD RUN FOREVER! I’M INVINCIBLE! I COULD TOTALLY KICK ABOUT 18 NINJAS ASSES RIGHT NOW WHILE RUNNING AND DOING KUNG-FU AND FENDING OFF LAND SHARKS. Especially because my neighborhood is just infested with land sharks right now.
You get what I’m saying. It’s pretty freakin’ fantastic. When it is gone, it sucks.
On what could have been an incredibly banal run done out of sheer necessity I found the high that I really needed to get me through my day. I’m ready to run again.
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*featured image from imgfave.com.
YES!!! This post was so inspiring. I had a great run this morning, too. I needed it. I’d also lost the high for too long.
Keep being crazy, V.
Yes! And I get it. Dude.. I did laps at the Workhouse before dance the other day because Bill’s schedule was messing my early AM runs. I TOTALLY get the need.
I didn’t get out of bed yesterday morning for my run and was super crabby by lunch time. I ditched my afternoon errands and went to the gym instead to use the treadmill and felt so much better. I actually nearly cried during the run because so much emotion bubbled up. I hadn’t realized how much I really needed running.
And the errands got done today while Muffin was in school so it all evened out in the end.
I fully intend to be the crazy person running laps around the soccer field during practice or games.
I read an excerpt from “The Drunk Diet,” and the gist of it is pretty much “Shut up and stop making excuses. If you really want to run, then go run.” Great job improvising and getting out there!