Listening to Ourselves

Whenever we runners go slow (and think we should’ve gone fast), we say, “I was listening to my body.” Okay, that’s definitely a good thing.

But how come nobody ever says they were listening to their body when they ran faster (than they should’ve)?

Monday I was making up my Sunday long run of 4 miles. Normally, I would’ve had to do it on the treadmill, but Mr. T had to work from home, so when T Junior went down for his nap, I took advantage of the great outdoors!

The long run is supposed to be slower, maybe even a run/walk. But Monday my legs just wanted to go, go, go! I physically and mentally could not slow myself down even though I knew I should. I also added a mile because I felt like it.

Mile 1: 9:24
Mile 2: 9:21
Mile 3: 8:48
Mile 4: 8:59
Mile 5: 8:53

I hope it’s okay to listen to your body when it’s telling you to go fast. I’m sort of a rule-follower.

The run itself: I did my “I Just Felt Like Running” virtual 5K loop backwards, which means I went down the big hill at the beginning of my run instead of going up it at the end. Winning. Except I had a couple miles to make up at the end and I wound up looping around through the neighborhood and was once again at U-go Hill. This time, going up. Luckily, I hit Mile 5 toward the bottom and used the rest of the incline for a cooldown (walk).

This run was a confidence-builder since my legs felt like lead. I only knew they wanted to “go, go, go” because I kept looking at my watch and seeing a sub-9 pace. I actually felt quite sluggish and was running into the wind a lot.

But my mind was peaceful, meditative even. I thought a lot about the catastrophic events happening in Japan, and just about life and family, and feeling extremely lucky to be alive.

That’s one of the things I love about running: it gives me the opportunity to hear my thoughts. I guess, on Monday, I listened to my body and my mind.