You're it

I watched eight grown-ups play a game of “tag” today, something I’m sure none of them had done for at least twenty years. But it didn’t take long for those school yard smiles to come rushing back to their faces once the chase began.

It got me thinking. At what point in our lives do we let this kind of fun leave us? Besides being thirty minutes of pure enjoyment, judging by the huffing and puffing of the eight Running Club members, it was also 30 minutes of pure physical activity.

And while the game continued, I was transported back to my elementary school yard where we’d run non-stop during recess until the bell called us back to class. As children, we ran, not always sure where we were going, but we still ran. Even today when children run you’ll always notice two things - a care-free, almost clumsy running form, and a smile as broad as their strides.

Somewhere along the line, though, us grown-ups screw it up and stop having fun and we begin to associate all physical activity with hard, unpleasant work, not play. This association almost always coincides with an overwhelming belief that the clothes dryer has shrunk every piece of clothing we own. I learned today, it doesn’t have to be this way. Get out there, be active, and have fun. It’s always a great day for a run, or a game of tag.

Next week it’s touch football, at least until the bell rings.

Second chances

I never thought writing an entry in my training log could be so exhilarating, but let me tell you, I haven’t done anything this exciting in a long time.

To the average runner, 15 minutes of walking on the treadmill split up by two one-minute jogging segments would hardly be worth reporting, but for me, it was like writing about finishing my first marathon.

I’m a pretty negative person overall; I always look for the pitfalls first and I joke with a friend that she’s the eternal optimist and I the eternal pessimist – both of us to a fault, though. But I decided while on the treadmill today, I would use this injury in a positive way to improve my running and hopefully avoid a similar plight in future. I found today that things felt a lot better when I straightened-up, reduced my stride length, and kept things slow. If you read any running-related material at all, these three things are preached with great consistency.
Maybe this time, I’ll pay more attention; the pessimist in me doubts it, though.