A Short History on Running

I was an avid runner. My 5:45 am runs along the Charles River in Boston were a joyful treat. I would wake and dress in darkness while most of the city was still asleep. Once on the trail, the morning sun slowly unveiled its orange and red brilliance behind the city skyline. I felt alive and strong in those private moments running along the Charles. The city was my oyster. In addition to my solo runs, I ran four milers with my best friend, Megan, several times a week from our parking area to the Elliott Bridge in Cambridge. Some Saturdays, I did longer runs, averaging from 5 to 10milers. Often, I drove down to Plymouth to visit my sister, Maggie, where I never missed an opportunity to run along Herring Pond. These were some of my favorite places to run and I truly miss everything about them.

When I moved to California in September 2009, I was free from six years of graduate course work, two jobs, a go-go-go lifestyle and importantly, I was free from a lot of stress. Without all that work, I felt like I was on vacation in California. I didn’t need to work right away and I took that opportunity to settle in, rebuild a home with my boyfriend, Sean, explore my new environment and just relax. I took a break from everything and that included, what used to be an integral part of my Boston life, running.

I can not tell you exactly why I stopped running. I just know that once I stopped it was very difficult to get back into it with the same strides. I was somewhat active. I walked, I did yoga at home and occasionally I hiked at Forest Falls. But these were leisurely “vacation” activities.

Sometime in October I noticed my body getting “soft” so I decided to go for a run but my legs felt heavy and my lungs burned. I didn’t run again until I found CrossFit in November.

My first CrossFit workout in the park left me sore for 5 days! I knew I needed this. Over the next three months I worked up my intensity and I became strong again. Then in March the unfortunate hip injury prevented me from working out. No matter how much I tried to push my body to move, pain stopped me.

Mobility returned to my hip and I was able to begin my long road to recovery. As you've read in previous posts, I hiked and attempted CrossFit again. But now, I was itching for a run. Maybe it was nostalgia of my runs along the Charles or Herring Pond, but I felt a burning desire to run again.

I encountered a bit of a problem. I already accepted the fact that I couldn't go all out and that I simply had to build up my muscles, endurance and stamina. So, the problem is that I work late hours at my new job and I get to sleep around 11:30 or midnight, Monday through Thursday. That means that I sleep through my ideal running time of 5:45am. By the time I wake, the day is bright and there's a lot of activity in the outside world. I prefer to run in the shadows, unseen.

I woke on Tuesday morning at 8 am, made a big fat cup of coffee and debated how and where I would perform my run that day. I didn't want to drive to a track and I definitely did not want to run around my neighborhood that late in the morning. So, I finally settled on walking over to the gym at my building complex and doing my run on the treadmill. That's right, I said it. I ran on the treadmill.

My ipod ran out of battery so I watched Emeril Live while my feet moved across the black tarmac belt. I was thrilled to be running! After the warm up I picked up pace and maintained a 9-minute mile. Emeril was making a salad dressing for his fried egg salad. My hip was behaving but my lungs were working hard. And after half an hour, I wanted to get off the treadmill. So I slowed to a walk for my cool down.

According to the machine, I ran 2.6 miles in 30 minutes and burned 295 calories. After the run I did a handful of man-makers with 20-lb barbells. I wanted to run 3 miles that day but I was fairly satisfied with my 2.6 mile run. I walked back to my apartment, chugging water and thinking about where and when my next run would be.