Stationary Bike, Lift, Chant, Breathe

A few days ago Bill suggested that I change the name of this blog to Stationary Bike, Lift, Chant, Breathe based on my lack of running and my substituted activity of peddling and reading.  And oh how true that statement was.  But as of today Run, Lift, Chant, Breathe is officially running again. 

I finished my antibiotic yesterday and my lungs have been feeling pretty okay.  Not great, not normal, but good enough to try out a few miles.  I was originally going to stick to the treadmill but the weather today is 81 degrees with only 68% humidity - a very well deserved break from the heat wave!  So instead of hitting the treadmill, I downloaded the new Stephanie Plum book, laced up my sneakers, put on my sunglasses, filled my water bottle and hit the road for 3.5 miles.

Mind you, I was dreading these 3.5 miles.  I am not a strong runner to begin with and two weeks off is a lot of time.  I used my favorite mantra to convince myself to get out the gym door.  I suggest anyone who is struggling with a run or with running in general to embrace this saying.  Ready?  Repeat after me "You can always walk."  Yup.  You can.  For all you yogis, think of this like child's or wisdom pose.  During yoga practice sometimes your body or your mind is telling you to rest...not because you are lazy, but because that us where you happen to be that day.  When that happens, you get into a brief child's pose (or a long child's pose).  You can apply this same reasoning with a walk break during a run.

If you are really struggling in a run your breathing is shallow, your shoulders are hunched, your body is tense and you are wasting a TON of energy.  A walk break will slow this down and help you regroup, gain back some of the energy and continue on.  It is not a failure, it is listening to your body.

So I started out on my 3.5 miles.  After walking up the first hill I decided to do 4 miles...not because of guilt about walking but because there are 2 less hills in my 4 mile loop than in my 3.5 mile loop...so 4 miles it was.  I did pretty okay.  I took another 5 minute or so walk break at mile 2.5 but otherwise my lungs and legs held up.  I did have a weird metallic taste in my mouth which tells me I am still a little sick and I did suck on my new inhaler after the run was done, but over all this blog is running again.