Namaste

I am the definition of a type-A personality. Oldest child, was president of my (well our, co-blogger Ange was also on exec board...fun fact du jour) sorority, took on two majors and a minor in college because "hey i'm already here dropping $40 grand a year why not make the most of it?", LOVE being busy and rushing from one thing to another.

While this is all well and good, I fully realize the downside of my crazed, overly involved, probably too competitive self. I'm impatient. I'm easily frustrated, by myself and others. I hate not having anything to do for more than an hour. I always need to be doing something productive and I despise situations where I'm not in control.

Where does this all tie into running?

I'm way frustrated with my current running state. I feel slow, out of shape and just blah. I'm sick of the heat, humidity and thunderstorms messing with my ability to get a quality run in after work. I find myself getting more and more agitated when other people pass me while running (granted these people are wearing tanks proclaiming their status on a local college's cross country team, but nonetheless). I focus on stupid work problems (which aren't even problems, I just blow them out of proportion in my head and then replay situations over and over) and end up carrying a lot of tension in my back and shoulders and running too fast too soon and tuckering out early.

It's bad.

In the hot yoga class I took on Monday the instructor mentioned something that stuck with me...you never want to get to the point with your workout where you feel like it's a chore. You HAVE to go to yoga. Or you HAVE to run, just to cross it off the day's checklist and move on to the next task on the to-do list. You should look at it as an opportunity to continue improving. (Sidenote, I just re-read that and good God do I sound like a white liberal yuppie. Sheesh.)

So today I tried a more relaxed approach. I accepted that my legs felt like jello 2 miles in. And that my ipod was stuck and refused to a) increase in volume and b) wouldn't skip songs. Ok, running to Van Morrison at a soft volume it is. Even though that makes me want to nap, not run fast. Totally fine. Keep on going. Also accepted the humidity reaching thick oppressive levels. Can't do anything about that. Keep on trucking. Before I knew it, my run was over. It didn't feel like a chore. It was one part of my training program. And tomorrow is another.