Running dominates my life. Sometimes more than others, but it's always there. Often, it's the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, day dream about it all day, and think about it as I'm drifting off to sleep. Like the first time you met the love of your life, it's on my mind all the time. I'm at work and I'm wondering what's going on in running land, dreaming about where and when I can run up hills, how the ground will feel, how my legs will feel. Like I've said before, it's one of the more favourable addictions that I am lucky enough to have. There is loads I like about it, other than the simple act of running and putting one foot in front of the other for whatever distance it may be at the chosen time. I enjoy the physical act of it, I love the pain of a hard session, I love feeling dizzy at the end of hard efforts. I love the freedom it gives you, I've seen so many places I would have never seen before had I not ran. Even the places I travel past in another fashion they look different when you run. I don't know how many times I've ran round my block, but every time I do I see things I haven't seen before, even though I have lived in the same street for about 25 years. I now know I can see 96 houses running around the 1/3 mile loop, I can point out on which house the sun rises and sets depending on what month it is, I know which gardens have the best sunlight for the cherry blossoms, and that they will always bloom slightly before the other house. I just notice different things. Running all though the seasons lets you see things you don't get from book learning. You can read all you want about anything, but seeing the same things all throughout the year gives you that something extra, a real life sense of what book learning doesn't give you. You see the seasons change from run to run, you see the different wildlife and birds that appear at different times and seasons. You can aye feel that wee nip in the air before anyone else can. There is something pretty special about beginning a run while the sun is going down, running alone with only the company of the beam of your headtorch, and seeing the sky light the next morning on the other side of the lump of rock you are running on. It's pretty special, and a shame that so many people never let loose to give themselves that freedom to step out that comfort zone that engulfs their life.
I, like many others, hit a bit of a dead zone this year with training. All races cancelled, limited to one run a day, which I needed to do as my commute home more often than not, putting that before a family walk as my daily exercise. It's all in all been a bit of a shitter of a year. I've became a victim to the comfort zone. Like Glen from Nightmare on Elm Street, lying in his comfort zone bed and suddenly it just consumes you, sucking you into it with nothing you can do, the zone taking away any external thing that you can do, ultimately causing the death of my fitness, although I probably put up less of a fight than Glen. The fear of where I am now in this comfort zone gives me more fear than Krueger ever did. It's scary.
But what is there to do? Be accountable. I was lacking a few things in my running game, lost the vision of where I want to be, to why I started running in all these circles. I love it. I'm getting there again, I still have a lot of work to do. But getting some accountability back has helped, remembering why I'm aiming to spend all this time away from the house, and the undying support of Mrs Shaw have all helped. I've grown another rubber ring (learn about this here) so I've a good bit of work to do to get to where I want to be. But if you don't want to be like Glen, get up off the bed and join me before Krueger gets you!
