I used to be a runner. I can say that now looking at these shoes and back at my memories. My husband and I started running as a way to have something very special in common with my father-in-law. He is very shy and we love him to pieces. Plain and simple. He is a runner. That is his thing. He is in his 70's and in all my years of running with and against him...I have never beaten him. He is a phenomenon. My husband is a twin and the youngest of five boys. They are all runners. Running is an institution in this family. I wanted to have that in common with them.
I have always been an athletic person. Soccer and swimming were my passions growing up. Back then, I looked at running as some form of punishment. I took this mentality forward when I started running in Chicago with my husband. That quickly faded. At first, we decided we would only do a 5K [3.1 miles] with his dad. That goal was met and it quickly grew from there. One goal set. Race. One goal achieved. Next. This went on for years and many races at distances I never thought I would go on just my two little legs. The largest challenge for us was a Sprint Triathlon. [loved this training and race! would do it again in a heartbeat!] It was nice to be able to mix swimming and running. To be honest, I could have done without the biking. Although some days while we were training, I would ask aloud, when I could catch my breath, "Why couldn't your dad have been a biker?!"
You either are or are not a runner. I am not sure if there is a place in between. Your life changes when you are a runner. Work stops at a certain time. Bed time is set. You eat differently to maintain your ideal running weight. You head nod at strangers on any path because you are all part of the same wonderful, friendly, sweaty, smelly group. You know what they know. The feeling of dragging yourself out of bed early when everyone else in the world is sleeping because you have an hour an a half run ahead of you. You eat peanut butter on a bagel because you know it is the best for energy. You wear your freebie t-shirt all day after a successful race as a badge to say "look what I just did!" You know what it feels like to clear out the cobwebs with one trip up a hill. Your watch is not just for telling time. It marks your life in laps and intervals.
I used to be a runner and then we moved. I started focusing on yoga. I was getting pretty good and was getting into positions that I had never been able to do. That is when I stopped being a runner. One yoga move on one side. Wow! Never did that before. Next side...and in that instant, the instant where I pinched a nerve in my back and fell to the ground crying and was unable to move or push myself even into a plank position, I stopped being a runner. I stopped everything.
The cobwebs have formed and the hamstrings get tight from sitting too long, but today, I am going to be a runner again. I need something to help quiet my mind in these crazy days. My shoes, New Balance 765s, have been staring at me for a couple of days, almost silently begging to be put back on. My sports bra seems to have mysteriously swam to the top of my drawer and my Wigwam running socks, after years of being lost, were found. I have pulled out all the training cheat sheets I have made over the years. They contain terms like cross train, strides, total uphill time, pace intervals, speed intervals, 10 min tempo repeats. They have break downs of PI [pace] and SI [speed] interval times. I am going to Runners World to do a quick memory jog about how to safely start from scratch. I am unsure if I will ever be where I once was, but the sensation, the rhythm, the alone with nature and my mind, will be a new type of running for me.
One of my favorite writers, John Bingham, better known as the Penguin for anyone who reads Runners World magazine, has a mantra that I love and will adopt once again.
The miracle isn't that I finished.
The miracle is that I had the courage to start.
CHEERS
I will try to post some PDFs soon of my training guides we have always used. They are all based off of training guides from Runners World...I just made them look snazzy. I am a designer first after all! :)