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What all the hoppers will soon experience

May 27, 2015 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 76 after the heat broke somewhat

Comments:
no practice today... No running commitments. After picking Anna up from tap (Leah is away on the fifth grade trip), I had 25 minutes until dinner. I was very drowsy and even lay down, but made myself get up after 90 seconds to fit in a run. I am so annoyed with myself for not starting my summer training yet... So I'm trying to follow last week's goals starting this week.

As happens every year at the end of spring track, my training drops back to basically nothing. That is fine. It is my annual break...just like I force my team to take. Like my athletes, I deliberately get out of shape, add a few pounds (which is fine and normal), and loose all my focus and motivation. I then struggle for the next month to restart my running routine and get back into shape. I know what is going on as I have been willingly going through this for decades, but it is still such a humbling, frustrating, and exhausting process. The GDS runners will go through all these same emotions over the next six weeks as they smartly and deliberately get themselves out of shape. (It seems illogical, but I strongly believe it is one of the most important things we do all year.)

I am currently trying to re-find my motivation and while it is humbling to drag myself through a two mile run like I did today, I know how crucial it is to be getting out consistently, and so I refrained from napping and instead ran a generous two miles around Chevy Chase, MD, mostly following my wife's loop which I usually hardly consider a run.

Over the next month I will have many awful runs and likely only one or two days that feel good. I'll often be self conscious about my pace. I'll frown when see my undefined legs poking out of my shorts. I'll gasp when I do a set of push ups as I did today. I'll question if I will EVER get back into shape. I'll convince myself that I should cut a number of runs short. I'll also force myself to go out when I don't want to. I'll call up old running friends and convince them to run with me. I'll dress in running clothes when running errands and then convince my wife to drive the girls home while I run back to the house. I'll go slow as "an ice truck going up a hill of molasses in the wintertime." I'll slowly build up miles and frequency of runs until I can look back after a month and mark some progress in my training. I'll then set new goals and continue the slow climb back to race shape because on August 15 I have a race with my goat teammates, and August 22 I have hoppers, current and past, to impress. I'll also stay at it this summer because it feels so good to be back in shape... To have conquered my body once again in this annual rite... To have come to know once again what it means to run good.