This morning’s run was WONDERFUL. One of those really great, endorphin-filled runs where all is right in the world and everything seems to become clear. It was a 14km ish run at endurance pace. Some of it I ran faster and some of it was slower. Overall is took me about an hour and ten minutes, and not even the dreary, grey, starting-to-drizzle early morning could bring me down. Seriously the best feeling is to go for a good, long (ish) run and feel strong and powerful; best way to start the day - ok, yes, there is one better way, but that would be for a very different blog. Maybe stay tuned for my forthcoming (will I ever finish it?) work of trashy fiction if you’d rather read about that instead…
I had intended to run the whole thing at a very slow pace (as per some advice I had read about your longer training runs for the week), however after slowing down or even after having to stop at traffic lights, as soon as my mind starts to wander and I don’t consciously ‘think’ about pace, then my speed increases slightly to my usual, comfortable running pace. I suppose then, that people have a set-pace, much like the body has a set weight, that it strives to keep you at, no matter if you eat more on one day and less on another. So, I don’t go much slower than my happy pace, nor do I go much above it, and when I am happily running in my ‘zone’ then this is my natural, set-pace. Sometimes when I’m trying to run a little bit slower, for example, when the training program dictates ‘recovery pace’ I try to conjure up Joanna Rohrback and her excellent ‘Prancercise’ (have a look on youtube, you won’t regret it), and try to emulate the ‘Prancercise Gallop’, although with a lot less (or none at all!) camel-toe. But, without fail, I forget after a few minutes of going at a slower pace.
So, running pace is one of the many thoughts that crossed my mind as I ran this morning. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Here are a few more:
1)
How amazing our bodies truly are. They can always do so much more than we seem to believe or think. While, yes, sometimes, we may wish for them to be different for aesthetic purposes (i.e. longer legs, bigger boobs etc.) that actually, if we are lucky enough to be healthy and injury free (fingers crossed this remains a constant), then what our bodies can do for us is nothing short of incredible. They really are amazing machines and vehicles for carrying us through our experiences in this particular lifetime. This then led me on to thinking about wait, if we think our bodies are incredible (and really, there’s nothing like the feeling of seeing just what your own body can do – push the limits and try a new experience for your body,
like an endurance race, or nice long climb or hike somewhere, or even surfing or sky-diving for the first time), then just think how awesome our MINDS are:
2)
I think if more people spend their time having their own amazing experiences, and seeing just how powerful their own minds
(together with their bodies) can be, instead of getting caught up in the artificial construct of all the bullshit like money, buying things, selling things, controlling people, being controlled, government, politics, raping the world’s resources, wars and destruction etc, and focused instead on their own minds and of living and loving, then the world would be a far happier, peaceful, loving place to live in, in this short time that we are here.
3)
Point in case re: being controlled and being told what you can and can’t do. Think about this: why is it that alcohol, one of the
worst, most destructive drugs there is, is not only legal, but is widespread and pushed as the ultimate downtime from people’s stressful ‘working weeks’ and is seen as the perfect accompaniment to having time off? When, other, much healthier, ‘drugs’ (such as: MDMA, cannabis, mushrooms/trips, or DMT) that lead to amazing, loving experiences, with nowhere near the adverse side effects of booze, are classed as illegal and dangerous? Could it be, perhaps, that the
powers-that-be (more bullshit hey) do not want people to have these experiences and to be able to open their minds? To achieve an experience that allows people to wonder at what more there could be to life, or that the illusion they’ve been sold their whole lives is just that, an illusion? Now, I’m not advocating the use of any drug here by the way, and I think everyone should be able to make their own choice re: what they choose to put into their bodies and experience, but it seems to me there a huge dichotomy between the way people would like to be living their life and the way we are conditioned to think that we ‘should’ be living.
Think about this: people could be loving each other, having amazing, visionary experiences, and achieving all of this from that which is within themselves already (divinity residing within you never sounded so true hey), i.e. it is widely acknowledged that trips ‘open up your mind’ and allow you to see things that your mind usually cannot (so, maybe these things are ALWAYS there, it is just we cannot usually access them with our limited senses and abilities), and yes, when you take a pill or some MDMA it is your own serotonin whose reuptake is blocked that leads to the amazing, enlightened, all-encompassing loving feeling that follows. However, when you imbibe that omnipresent alcohol, it is an external poison, a depressant, a very temporary illusion that is hard to recall in detail as soon as the poison is broken down and the body has gotten rid of it. Hmm, so internal/wonderful/loving/happy/psychedelic experiences versus external poison/depressing/vomit-inducing/highly-calorific, oh yes and highly taxed (i.e. government and powers-that-be earn a lot of money from it!) substance?? Remind me again why one is legal and the other (usually natural, plant based) is so wrong???
4)
The song from the Lion King where Simba ‘just can’t wait to be King!’ has been intermittently surfacing and recirculating in
my mind in between thoughts as I ran - seems to be stuck on repeat, owing to my using clips from this film in my lessons this week.
Whew, and those were just a few of the many thoughts of today. Apologies to those I have bored or turned off my blog completely. (Running as meditation or as thinking time anyone?) For those who may still be reading (thanks for sticking with me thus far), back to business:
Yesterday was my rest day for the week. I had a lie in (yes!) and finally got round to watching one of those running movies recommended in response to my query (thanks heaps Kristina!) – I watched the documentary ‘The Spirit of the Marathon’, and it was great. Made me want to get out there and run though, so I advise watching it the night before a run or on a non-rest day hey. The rest of the day was spent: playing an hour and half ish of ping-pong with some friends, followed by the requisite big lunch of many shared dishes (with the lazy Susan doing the hard work in the centre), then lots of cooking and eating for most of the afternoon and evening, and we ended our Saturday with some beautiful melon ice-cream and dark chocolate.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone, wherever you may be – have a good one and have fun.
I had intended to run the whole thing at a very slow pace (as per some advice I had read about your longer training runs for the week), however after slowing down or even after having to stop at traffic lights, as soon as my mind starts to wander and I don’t consciously ‘think’ about pace, then my speed increases slightly to my usual, comfortable running pace. I suppose then, that people have a set-pace, much like the body has a set weight, that it strives to keep you at, no matter if you eat more on one day and less on another. So, I don’t go much slower than my happy pace, nor do I go much above it, and when I am happily running in my ‘zone’ then this is my natural, set-pace. Sometimes when I’m trying to run a little bit slower, for example, when the training program dictates ‘recovery pace’ I try to conjure up Joanna Rohrback and her excellent ‘Prancercise’ (have a look on youtube, you won’t regret it), and try to emulate the ‘Prancercise Gallop’, although with a lot less (or none at all!) camel-toe. But, without fail, I forget after a few minutes of going at a slower pace.
So, running pace is one of the many thoughts that crossed my mind as I ran this morning. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Here are a few more:
1)
How amazing our bodies truly are. They can always do so much more than we seem to believe or think. While, yes, sometimes, we may wish for them to be different for aesthetic purposes (i.e. longer legs, bigger boobs etc.) that actually, if we are lucky enough to be healthy and injury free (fingers crossed this remains a constant), then what our bodies can do for us is nothing short of incredible. They really are amazing machines and vehicles for carrying us through our experiences in this particular lifetime. This then led me on to thinking about wait, if we think our bodies are incredible (and really, there’s nothing like the feeling of seeing just what your own body can do – push the limits and try a new experience for your body,
like an endurance race, or nice long climb or hike somewhere, or even surfing or sky-diving for the first time), then just think how awesome our MINDS are:
2)
I think if more people spend their time having their own amazing experiences, and seeing just how powerful their own minds
(together with their bodies) can be, instead of getting caught up in the artificial construct of all the bullshit like money, buying things, selling things, controlling people, being controlled, government, politics, raping the world’s resources, wars and destruction etc, and focused instead on their own minds and of living and loving, then the world would be a far happier, peaceful, loving place to live in, in this short time that we are here.
3)
Point in case re: being controlled and being told what you can and can’t do. Think about this: why is it that alcohol, one of the
worst, most destructive drugs there is, is not only legal, but is widespread and pushed as the ultimate downtime from people’s stressful ‘working weeks’ and is seen as the perfect accompaniment to having time off? When, other, much healthier, ‘drugs’ (such as: MDMA, cannabis, mushrooms/trips, or DMT) that lead to amazing, loving experiences, with nowhere near the adverse side effects of booze, are classed as illegal and dangerous? Could it be, perhaps, that the
powers-that-be (more bullshit hey) do not want people to have these experiences and to be able to open their minds? To achieve an experience that allows people to wonder at what more there could be to life, or that the illusion they’ve been sold their whole lives is just that, an illusion? Now, I’m not advocating the use of any drug here by the way, and I think everyone should be able to make their own choice re: what they choose to put into their bodies and experience, but it seems to me there a huge dichotomy between the way people would like to be living their life and the way we are conditioned to think that we ‘should’ be living.
Think about this: people could be loving each other, having amazing, visionary experiences, and achieving all of this from that which is within themselves already (divinity residing within you never sounded so true hey), i.e. it is widely acknowledged that trips ‘open up your mind’ and allow you to see things that your mind usually cannot (so, maybe these things are ALWAYS there, it is just we cannot usually access them with our limited senses and abilities), and yes, when you take a pill or some MDMA it is your own serotonin whose reuptake is blocked that leads to the amazing, enlightened, all-encompassing loving feeling that follows. However, when you imbibe that omnipresent alcohol, it is an external poison, a depressant, a very temporary illusion that is hard to recall in detail as soon as the poison is broken down and the body has gotten rid of it. Hmm, so internal/wonderful/loving/happy/psychedelic experiences versus external poison/depressing/vomit-inducing/highly-calorific, oh yes and highly taxed (i.e. government and powers-that-be earn a lot of money from it!) substance?? Remind me again why one is legal and the other (usually natural, plant based) is so wrong???
4)
The song from the Lion King where Simba ‘just can’t wait to be King!’ has been intermittently surfacing and recirculating in
my mind in between thoughts as I ran - seems to be stuck on repeat, owing to my using clips from this film in my lessons this week.
Whew, and those were just a few of the many thoughts of today. Apologies to those I have bored or turned off my blog completely. (Running as meditation or as thinking time anyone?) For those who may still be reading (thanks for sticking with me thus far), back to business:
Yesterday was my rest day for the week. I had a lie in (yes!) and finally got round to watching one of those running movies recommended in response to my query (thanks heaps Kristina!) – I watched the documentary ‘The Spirit of the Marathon’, and it was great. Made me want to get out there and run though, so I advise watching it the night before a run or on a non-rest day hey. The rest of the day was spent: playing an hour and half ish of ping-pong with some friends, followed by the requisite big lunch of many shared dishes (with the lazy Susan doing the hard work in the centre), then lots of cooking and eating for most of the afternoon and evening, and we ended our Saturday with some beautiful melon ice-cream and dark chocolate.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone, wherever you may be – have a good one and have fun.
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