It has been said that runners have their best thoughts of the day while out running. Runner and writer
Michael Selman shares his
"Thoughts on Running" with us here at ontherunevents.com.
For the last five years, it has recently dawned on me, I have become a “safe” runner. This is one of the potential side-effects of post-injury recovery. Once the physical ailments have healed, the impact on the psyche can still be felt in every step for years down the road.
The year and a half of recovery was, at the time, unbearable. The inability to run made the desire even stronger, and it almost got to the point where I resented those who could enjoy a run as if they were taking it for granted. After running injury-free for 15 years, I was not able to run due to injury for the first time, and this was a very difficult pill for me to swallow.
Before my injury, which happened in July, 1997, I used to push myself often. I raced almost every weekend the year before I got hurt, racking up 51 races in 52 weeks in 1996, and I raced well, too. When I first got hurt, thanks to my own ignorance, it took a few more days before I realized the severity of the injury, and on each successive attempt to run through it, I did more and more damage until I had no choice but to stop totally. It hurt too much.
When I returned to regular running and occasional racing as a part of my lifestyle, nearing the end of 1998, things were much different, but I was very content with just being able to once again participate. There were still hints of the injury every run, but I modified my purposes for running, removing the competitive aspects of it except with myself. My overall mileage eventually returned to pre-injury numbers, but my training intensity and race times headed way south. I didn’t mind. At least I was still running.
The physical reminders of the injury finally lifted totally, and I was running pain-free for the first time in over two years, but I continued to proceed with caution. I never wanted to relive the experience of having one tiny weak spot on my body dissuade me from running altogether. My feelings while injured often turned to pondering if I would ever run again. It was sickening to even entertain the thought, but at the time, it felt like it was a very real possibility.
Overall, I have been very satisfied with my running since my return, and now I’ve enjoyed five full years on the other side of the injury without a recurrence. I have also been fortunate enough to have experienced some of the fondest memories that my running has provided since my return.
It suddenly hit me yesterday, during my New Year’s Day run, that if I was going to label 2003 from a running perspective, it would appropriately been called the “Year of the Bore.” I really did nothing new with my running, and finished the year with no real running accomplishment to show for it.
And I realized that this is not acceptable for 2004.
It’s interesting how easily we put off our commitments to make positive change until the calendar pushes forward from one year to the next, when the ability to make significant changes is available to us every day of the year. Regardless, there is something about a new running log, with its entire history still to be written, that jump-starts each new running year.
For Christmas, Harriet presented me with a new heart-rate monitor. I have no idea yet how to either operate it, or how to use it to improve myself as a runner, but I am committed to learning in very short order. I was very excited to receive it. I’m sure it will be an important step in re-discovering the athlete within.
A new health club just opened up within the past month, right up the road from us, and it sports a 25 meter lap pool. I don’t know the first thing about swimming, except that it’s preferable to keep your head above the water, but I am committed to learn, thus making me a more well-rounded athlete.
I am also ready to make more of an effort to be sure that the things I put in to my body will support and enhance the maximum efforts I try to get out of my body. This will mean adding, eliminating, or at least modifying my choices of what I eat and drink. I believe that this is something that separates the athlete from the runner. Does this sound like a New Year’s resolution, or what?
My 2004 is going to be all about performance goals, and going about the most effective way to achieve and exceed them. What I’m most excited about is that I am finally ready to leave the comfort of “safe running” behind, and take some chances again. I’m willing once again to risk injury to reach new heights. I am saying good-bye and good-riddance to the “Year of the Bore” and I am declaring 2004 as the “Year of the Athlete.”
The Roads Scholar, Michael Selman runs and writes in Atlanta GA. He
would love to hear from you. Please e-mail him at TheRoadsScholar@aol.com
with any questions or comments. You can also subscribe to his Newsletter
at that same address.
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