To Run.

I've been really busy at work today but I had to take a break to write briefly about my exercise last night.

I ran for the first time in probably two months. It was really nice. It was HARD. Harder than I ever remember it being. But it was nice.

I used to run all the time. I've never been a race-runner, never trained for a marathon or anything so heroic, but I was a pretty dedicated runner for quite some time nonetheless. I always felt that even though I also love walking as a form of cardio, running always brought my body/mind to an elevated place I couldn't quite achieve with walking or hiking. Not to mention I walk easily 7-10 miles a day in my NYC life as it is. My body's pretty used to the walking. So I looked to running to bring me to a different place that I couldn't get to through other exercise and to make my body, lungs, and heart stronger. All runners will tell you about the meditative state they achieve after a certain amount of time into the run and I always had the same experience. I still feel like I'm in a meditative state during any kind of exercise, but running is slightly different. You're in a zone unlike anything else.

I set out last night to jog to the gym near my apartment because it's a quick jog and it just seemed easier/faster than walking there. I'm not sure why I thought it would be easier, it certainly wasn't. But it was faster and I wanted to elevate my heartrate before my latenight lifting session (went to gym around 10pm). And frankly I just didn't want to spend the time on the treadmill at the gym getting my heartrate up with an incline hike. Running, when I hadn't done so in a couple months, seemed like the sneaky way out of doing more cardio than I wanted to do.

As soon as I started out on the run I was shocked by how difficult it was to move my body like that. I exercise all the time and have been consistent with my exercise for 5 years, not to mention I used to be a runner! But a few months away from it apparently made my body forget entirely. I wasn't bummed out by how difficult it was, I was actually encouraged to get back into the running game, at least every now and again.

When I got to the gym 7 minutes later, it didn't feel like enough. My body was tingling and I was craving more so I hopped on the treadmill and finished out 20 minutes. It was still REALLY hard. The whole time I was on the treadmill the seconds seemed to be passing like molasses and I wanted to quit the moment I started, but I finished the 20 minutes and I'm glad I did. It felt really good. Then I did a nice lifting session and walked home.

I'm not planning to get back up to my hour-long runs anytime soon. I think it might be a bit too hard on my body and I also don't have the time to commit to it. And as I've learned with my running, if you can't commit the time to building up your endurance, it's going to suck every time you start over. But I would like to add back in 10-40 minute stints here and there for a little variety. Not every day. But every once in a while. My body was certainly shocked to be moving in that way again last night and we all know variety is the KEY to effective exercise. ;) We all know that, right?

So that's that. I'll have some time tomorrow night to workout, only about an hour though, so I plan to do some light lifting, some pilates, and 30 minutes of cardio. We'll see how long within that 30 minutes I can run.