The many faces of R&R

It’s been a while since my last posting (kinda reminds of the “Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it’s been n months since my last confession…” days of my Catholic childhood.) The reason I haven’t written anything is not entirely because I’ve been a complete slacker (although I did have a few rough days when I couldn’t get going in the morning), but more because I’ve been lost in my own head. If I ran as much as my mind wandered lately, I’m sure I would have made it around the world at least once by now. Several friends and co-workers have told me that I should take some time off of work for some R&R.

When I was a chubby, band geek in middle and high school, R&R would have stood for Rocky Road ice cream since I was, okay – am, an emotional eater. During my 20s I traded the Rocky Road in for another not-so-healthy R&R alternative: ‘ritas and rum. To tell you the truth, it didn’t even have to start with “R” as long as it had some kind of alcohol content. Eventually I stopped relying so much on these vices and discovered a new “R” in running. Running and reflecting, reminiscing, ranting, rejoicing, and any other R-word, activity, or thought that we do while running.

As my sister and I walked through the Bodies exhibit last weekend I was trying to tell her how therapeutic running was for me. You know – the sound of your feet as you fill your lungs with air; letting your mind wander in a million different directions that our feet or wallets could never take you; the sweat rolling off of you almost feeling like you were shedding away any problems that you started the run with.

Her response: "Ugh. I hate running." This coming from someone who is competing in a tae kwon do tournament in a few weeks and who will probably have to resort to drinking Ballerina Tea to drop 5 lbs to be in her weight class. For those of you not familiar with Ballerina Tea, it basically makes you go #2. I know, disturbing name if you think about it too much, but I didn’t come up with it. Anyway, I thought to myself "Fair enough. We all have our own form of R&R." My sister’s version just involves sparring and some self-induced dehydration. Think I’ll stick with running.

Okay, enough of my rambling. So far this week I’ve been able to get in about 14 miles, plus a killer 4x1600 track workout yesterday that left me feeling worthless. Tomorrow’s long run is 14-miles which should be manageable if I don’t start off too fast.