Today at around 5pm I was sitting at home, taking a big breath, watching a short clip from an old film I liked as a teenager, “House Guest” with Sinbad and the late Phil Hartman.
There’s a scene with a local fun-run.
I got the urge to go for a run.
Immediately, I collected the house keys, put on my shoes and darted out the front gate.
It was only about 20 minutes that I was on my feet.
With a couple of relatively short inclines, I was breathing heavily by the time I reached home again.
It felt great.
Since I had been a natural long-distance runner growing up, the urge to push myself to 110% is still there.
But I resisted.
Instead, I focused on keeping my spine decompressed with my movement on each side of the body as balanced as possible.
The run was impromptu, with no creeping expectation.
Just like last night, just before midnight, when I decided to do my first squash core foundation workout in a long time.
Why didn’t you do this sooner?
…is the question most of us ask ourselves upon restarting an activity we once dedicated considerable time to but then let go.
The challenge for me, from this point, is to continue with repeated physical exercise while keeping that fresh, on the spur of the moment feeling in my awareness.
