Maybe there is something to that «warm-up» thing, after all.
In the past few years I’ve found myself having trouble getting back into the flow of running. When I go out it has been more difficult than it used to be. Perhaps I’m getting older, certainly I’ve fallen out of good training habits, but I’ve only rarely found that «zone» I used to enjoy where I settle in to a pace and feel I can continue indefinitely.
Today’s run was a good deal closer to that than it has been in a while, and I credit that to not starting running straight out the door.
When I put the heartrate monitor on, I saw that my pulse was faster than it ought to be — it was up around 120 not exactly at rest, but not under any real exertion either. If I’d walked into an emergency room, they’d have called that *tachycardia*. I was otherwise fine, and I’m chalking it all up to a combination of stress and being generally out of shape. If I want my resting heartrate lower, canceling a planned run is not the way to do it.
However, I thought it prudent to start out walking rather than running. I did a mile in about fifteen minutes — a moderately brisk pace, but walking. At the mile mark, I started a slow run, and was pleasantly surprised to find it easy to maintain.
That said, I did *not* maintain the pace. Instead I varied it quite a bit. I did a few intervals and took a couple of walk breaks, and took a short detour onto the rocks to take photos. About a half mile from home on the way back I stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up a salad and sushi for lunch and called the walk back home my cool-down.
The sky was blue and the air was warm. It was a good day to be out and I’m calling it a very successful run. As far as the heartrate goes, well, as meditative as I find running to be, perhaps I ought to start back with the sitting meditation as well. Something else worthwhile about which I’ve fallen out of practice.
