Tarmac Meditations #45: Get Your Ass Out and Run!

Running takes more than physical energy. It’s also a mental pursuit.

October 22, 2010

Apparently, I am writing a running journal for a guy who doesn’t run — not running every day and not training for races either. WTH? On one side, at least I write something everyday. On the other, in addition to my typing skills improving, I don’t have to buy $80 gloves with waffle treads and neutral posting for my fingers, or faux Olympic training jackets for my hands, to which my speedy fingers are attached. I type in my fingers’ aerobic zone; sometimes I do anaerobic interval-like sprints with the necessary repeats involved. Correcting errors is just like doing running intervals too fast — it’s a typist’s version of pulling a hammy or tweaking that Achilles).

Is there a point to this? Not likely.

I’m hungry. I didn’t run early so I’m not likely to run later. I will run tomorrow— and now, I’ll have lunch highlighted by two ibuprofen, a Diet Pepsi and a handful of unshelled organic salted peanuts (how do you salt a peanut with the shell on and then take the shell off and still have a salty peanut to eat?). Don’t ask, don’t know.

October 23, 2010

Whenever I stop running everyday, for whatever reason, I find it difficult to start up again. My bent is to make it into some grand scheme in need of complex strategies and tactics. My friend Bob told me something that made sense: Get your ass out and run! In the end, that’s the deal.

Ran today for an hour. Come tomorrow, I will get up and do it again (Jackson Browne reference?). I have the idea to think about base building, i.e. just running for the next two months and letting my body readjust to all the surgeries, both medical and age related. Getting older and slower means re-adjusting what you can do and how fast you can get to a certain point.

Come the new year, if the running has happened, when the running happens, I will pick an event to aim for, maybe Napa, maybe Austin, maybe New Zealand. Then, in celebration, I will eat ice cream and put an end to the darkness and chaos in my life that ice cream’s absence brings (to paraphrase Don Kardong).

Photo Credit

“Untitled” desbyrnephotos @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.