On the Road Again

Actually, on the "dreadmill" again. I haven't blogged since April 3rd, two days after the last time since I have run...until today. I was sick with a terrible cold and upper respiratory infection for two weeks. I felt well enough to run last weekend and intended to do so, but it was just so easy to give in to excuses. I guess I was a victim of Newton's first law, objects at rest stay at rest, and objects in motion will stay in motion.

It amazes me how hard it is to start running again after you have lost the momentum. I brought my running gear with me to work every day this week and placed it under my desk with the intention of running at lunch, but every day I found an excuse to delay my run until after work. After work, I quickly found an excuse to run first thing in the morning and would set my alarm for 5:30 am. At 5:30 am the next morning, I told myself I would run at lunch as I pushed the snooze button...repeatedly. And the vicious (downward) spiral continued.

One day I was watching PBS television during one of their support drives, and there was a gentleman speaking named Dr. Wayne Dyer. Dr. Dyer, affectionately called the "father of motivation" by his fans, is one of the most widely known and respected people in the field of self-empowerment (from his website). One of the things that I remember from his PBS special is that you must "contemplate and surround yourself with the conditions that you want to produce in your life." When I went to my friend's wedding on April 2nd, I put on my regular watch and have had it on ever since. But for some reason, today I put back on my Polar heart rate monitor watch, and I just *felt* like a runner. Oddly enough, this subtle suggestion was enough to motivate me to run today, the first time in 20 days. I contemplated and surrounded myself with running!

During my running hiatus I ordered The Pose Method of Running and the accompanying DVD based on one of Patrick's posts. I figured I would try this new technique on my first day back running, especially since I was running on the treadmill. Basically, the technique is to run on the balls of your feet and to visualize pulling straight up from the ankles. It was sort of difficult concentrating on form at first, but got easier as the run went along. There were no epiphanies for me; however, I did realize that I was definitely running with a heel strike before. This method is supposed to enhance endurance, raise speed, reduce recovery time, increase flexibility, and reduce injuries. These are all things that I could benefit from, so I'll try and stick with it for awhile.

As soon as I finished running, I could feel my calf muscles and expect to be sore; I can definitely tell that I was running with different form. I only ran 3 miles which wasn't difficult, but the rate of perceived exertion felt like about 4 miles. How quickly we erase the endurance gains!! I am looking forward to the 10k next weekend.