Head Over Heels: January 2010

January 28, 2010

Running, Take Two

So it's been a few weeks since my last post. I admit I let the winter get to me and my morning runs. I could launch into the endless excuses about finals and 60 hour work weeks and losing my sneakers and negative temperatures and snow...but I wont :) Instead, I'm proud to report that I'm even more determined to make running a part of my life. I've actually missed my morning runs, which has to count for something.

These past few weeks have not been a total loss. I've taken to doing morning and evening stretches and ab workouts, and walking four miles every day (to and from work). My body still feels in shape and I feel even more limber and ready to hit the ground running. I've decided that after this long work week and this weekend away, I'm going to go out for a morning run on Monday. It'll be a fantastic start to the week and a fantastic way to get back into gear.

While Haruki Murakami writes that one should never take two consecutive days off from running, I think my three-week hiatus was actually needed. It allowed me time to rest, focus on other aspects of my life, and let me look forward to running again.

Welcome to Head Over Heels!

Like many 20-something women, I woke up one morning exasperated. It seemed like every day I would find a new passion, a new dream, and get excited about yet another project, just to find that they would all crash and burn. I wanted something that I could control and that would be all mine.

Because our 20s are a time of exploration and discovery, it's very hard to find that path that directs us exactly to our dreams, especially because our dreams have the habit of evolving overnight. I had worn myself into a tizzy of exhaustion, disappointment, and an overwhelming sense of having no control over my own life. And that's when I went for that first run.

Two minutes later, I arrived back at my apartment steps, panting. As long and as torturous as those two minutes felt, they also gave me a sense of liberation, a feeling that had been severely lacking in my life. The next day, pathetically still sore, I again put on my sneakers. Three minutes, yes! This routine was repeated daily throughout the summer and now, I'm a half-marathoner! My ultimate goal, a marathon, still looms in the distant future, but the even bigger goal is one I can actively work on every day: learning to gain control over my own life and learning to fall in love with myself one step at a time.