When I was training with a running coach, needless to say, the routine was rather regimental. I used to more often than not, stick to the training schedule.
Some of the workouts were harder than the others. Speed workouts and tempos were as challenging mentally as they were physically. Add to that, waking up at an unearthly hour of the day and starting the run closer to 6 am.
All this lead to an occasional reluctance. I would sometimes feel so tempted to snooze the alarm and go to bed. I can’t be sure but there could have been times when I skipped a workout here and there. Having said that, I was largely regular.
My training like so went on uninterrupted for over a season and a half which would be closer to 15 to 18 months. When you do something for this long, you tend to get better at keeping to the schedule and to some extent take the activity for granted.
All this changed one day. I developed a painful cramp in my right calf. I just couldn’t complete the run and had to ask for a lift back to the start point. Subsequent examination revealed that it was a case of muscle imbalance and it took be a good couple of weeks for me to be able to resume running with my pre-energy intensity.
During this rehab period, there were days when I just could not run. And that is when I realised that, the discomfort of not being able to run was as much, if not more, as the discomfort of the injury itself.
Incidentally, around this time, I came across a quote that read, “You don’t have to run. You get to run” on one of the running related social media sites that I used to follow. I was at an emotional low point as running by then had become an integral part of my lifestyle and I was experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the loss of the whole dopamine and runner’s high effect. I had grown crankier than usual. Reading this brought about a sense of helplessness in me. As if to imply that getting back to running was not in my hands.
“You don’t have to run. You get to run” – Unknown
I thankfully found that I had some motivation left in me. This drove me to follow the doctor’s instructions to the tee and I slowly started getting better. The injury eased and I will advised to slowly start increasing my running intensity while observing the condition of the calf. It took about a month of religious rehabilitation and I was able to run again with the same pre-injury intensity. I felt the runner’s high again and I couldn’t believe it.
At that moment, I realised what the contemporary proverb really meant. I realised the privilege that running was and how bless was I to be able to run (again). This brought on another realisation. If it is indeed a blessing and am fortunate to be bestowed upon, is it fair for me to feel lazy and avoid training runs ever? I don’t have to run. I get to run. And if I do get to run, why shouldn’t I? In fact, not running post the realisation would mean giving up on the lessons that weeks of misery during rehab should have taught me.
After that day, whenever am the only one who decides whether a run should happen or no, or when the thought of cutting the run short comes to my mind, when the going gets tough, I remind myself that being able to run is in itself a blessing and when I look at it that way, it changes my perspective and invariably, I do not end up skipping or quitting.
Endurance sport is a metaphor for life. This was an idea I first came across, if am not mistaken, in one of Lance Armstrong’s books.
Combining this metaphor with the lesson I had learnt through the injury, I often try to extrapolate it and apply it to counter my blues in other walks of life as well.
If I don’t feel like getting out of bed and get to work on a Monday, I try to remind myself that am fortunate to do what I do and it isn’t that I have to work, I get to do the work I do and what a turn of good fortune that is. What a blessing.
Looking around, I experience tremendous gratitude towards the Almighty and the Universe for everything that I have been blessed with. Many are not this fortunate and such an affirmation serves as a not so gentle reminder of this. It is amazing how power it is and how effectively it changes your perspective towards whatever that you feel like procrastinating.
This again needn’t be related to your goals and your work alone. Look around you. You feel lazy to keep your room clean, many people around are homeless and pray for a safe abode. You avoid calling your parents and spending time with them? Ask someone who has lost his or her parents.
Ultimately it comes down to being grateful. Grateful for everything that we have been blessed with.
You don’t have to ___. You get to ___.
