The Running Roller Coaster Ride
After a personal record 40+ mile week of running, I did a 10-mile run on asphalt and promptly shot my IT band. I took a rest day yesterday and may not feel well enough to run again today. I'm beginning to think that runners stop running not because they don't improve or don't feel like running anymore, but because they get tired of riding the running roller coaster ride.
The roller coaster ride I'm talking about is not the physical one, but the emotional one. The emotional low of anxiety and hopelessness that comes with injury is difficult to put into perspective when you're in it. Running is just one activity among many activities in life, after all, but sometimes running can promote a sort of tunnel vision. If the freedom of taking off for anywhere with just your shoes, the cool breeze brushing against your face and body, and the satisfying fatigue that settles in after a long run get you high, you know how low the absence of running can make you feel. Once the injury's gone and you're back on your feet, the low turns to a feeling of gratefulness, hope, and determination as you try to get back to where you left off. You feel included in your circle of running friends again as a participant, not just a cheerleader, and all the world is right again, or at least conquerable.
This just goes to show how much running, or anything in life for that matter, can quickly become the determining factor in your mood and outlook. It can be a dangerous thing. As I write this and complain about the ups and downs of this running roller coaster ride, it is of course because I am riding the low. But at the same time, I know I'm not ready to get off this roller coaster yet. Part of the challenge is going with the flow and exerting control and self-discipline through all of the undulations -- not letting the ride control you, but you mastering the ride instead. This seems to me to be running as part of a lifestyle. This must be where character building is done. So here I go again, waiting for the upswing, and perhaps it's time I did some attitude adjustment while I'm down here...
(Source: Brian Block, activerain.com)
This just goes to show how much running, or anything in life for that matter, can quickly become the determining factor in your mood and outlook. It can be a dangerous thing. As I write this and complain about the ups and downs of this running roller coaster ride, it is of course because I am riding the low. But at the same time, I know I'm not ready to get off this roller coaster yet. Part of the challenge is going with the flow and exerting control and self-discipline through all of the undulations -- not letting the ride control you, but you mastering the ride instead. This seems to me to be running as part of a lifestyle. This must be where character building is done. So here I go again, waiting for the upswing, and perhaps it's time I did some attitude adjustment while I'm down here...
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