Lesson of the Morning

The lesson I learned from yesterday into today is that the conclusion I draw about the advisability of a choice I am making may depend very importantly on how I am looking at the choice—or where I am looking at it from.  Yesterday, I chose not to run as my head felt very stuffed and I felt very tired.  When I got out of bed, I felt a little better but decided to stick with the decision not to run.

For this morning, I made a decision yesterday not to run with my usual Saturday training partner. That was disappointing as I love the company on the long Saturday runs, but I needed to have the options (a) to run where it is warmer inside at the Y (sometimes it hurts to breath very cold air for a long time, especially when I am not feeling 100%), and (b) to quit if my body told me to.  Both of those point to running on a treadmill inside.

So, this morning, I was lying in bed thinking about whether to run or not.  If I had all the time in the world to just rest, was not training for Boston, and was not motivated to be a “doer” in my running, I probably would have just rolled over one more time (I had already ignored my alarm several times) and slept in until having to take my eight year old to hockey,

Instead I got up to (a) finish making bagels and (b) assess my running options.  With a clearer head and a slightly energized body, I decided to run. 

It emphasizes the importance to me of how sometimes just making a little effort to get started really facilitates the decision to continue.  Never even bothering to start makes it easy not to try.  At least trying makes it so much easier to continue.

I could think of that as part of the physics of inertia and momentum.  I could also think of it as the nature of always being willing to get up and keep going, as embodied by the story of St. Sebastian.  It’s a great day for thinking about the latter as I get the final touch up on my first tattoo today.

Have a great Saturday!