Sunday, December 06, 2009

Disconnecting

I can't lie, the body wants to be in hibernation mode. It's getting dark early and I wake up on weekends too often not wanting to run. In fact, if there was a weekend to skip a run, this would be it: I'm one week away from starting the next marathon training cycle and could use a step-back week.

But today was a sunny day, and looking at my BlackBerry I saw too many emails fly into my inbox -- it was a Sunday morning and I just couldn't escape work. So I said to myself "You can't not run on a sunny day, you don't get many of them these days."

So without a real goal of distance, I went on a sprawling route around downtown, taking a turn here, a lap at the track, then up a big hill and down a long one. Before it was over, I saw that I was going to do more than 10 miles. By the time I was done, I'd done 20K.

True, I run with an iPod at times, and always with my Garmin, but while I'm connected to these gizmos one thing I do when I run is disconnect from the wired world. Emails, tweets and text messages can land in their many inboxes or screens but for those few hours when I'm running out there, I'm out there disconnected, only to find myself -- while huffing up a hill, breathing hard at a stop light, striding down a sidewalk with studder steps to avoid a pedestrian, looping around the highschool track, gulping down water from an icy cold water bottle, sprinting down asphalt on a deserted street, turning a corner to discover a new route -- that all those motions all help me find the purpose. Reconnecting with myself.

That'll serve as another reason why I run.

Training wise, Boston prep begins in one week. I've been logging strong mileage over the past five weeks so I may take it really easy the next seven days. The first month of training, which will include the holidays, will be relatively light. Lots of 8 to 10 milers in there with some tempo work. The long runs won't get truely long until mid January. It's going to be tough between now and March: The three dark and cold months have always been a test. I'm almost anticipating the snow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

best thing i've read this year. what a glorious day. though on foot i myself was walking. completely disconnected. i had a clock. and a destination. a rendez-vous. otherwise free of the tether of...whatever it is, that depleting force sucking our brains.

awesome!

Marky Mark said...

So true-running is really the only time I'm not connected to my Blackberry (although on rare occasions I've made exceptions and checked at a stop light or water break). We've been lucky this year but the lack of light is unpleasant and that doesn't change from year to year. The days start to get longer two weeks from today!

Marlene said...

It's a tough time to train for sure, but you have BOSTON to look forward to.

I hear you on the disconnecting... a much needed bread from the ding!ding! of email/text alerts.