Small Bursts of Activity

Coming into the fields this morning I was met by glorious sunshine on frosty hedges and grasses, giving everything a magical quality.


During the interval training I realised how small bursts of activity followed by cool down enable you to achieve greater heights than continuous effort at the same level. 


Pushing myself at 180 bpm was manageable when I knew It was only for 3 minutes.
And later in the evening at the 2 hour kung fu session, I was hardly sweating during the sparring sessions we were doing and noticed that although most people were gasping for breath I was breathing normally. So the interval training is helping my overall fitness which is very pleasing.

The dalmation came and found us again today and I even had chance to say "hello" to his owner as I was just moving into the cool down phase. 


I have found that the little hillock in one of the fields is a favourite spot for doing qi qong exercises after the run. It looks out over the valley into the fields opposite and gives a long view. It is especially pleasing in the sunshine. I think of the Qi Qong exercise a bit like a treat I might give myself after I've achieved something, rather like a chocolate. It fills me with softness and warmth and an internal glow. 

Dogs like Exercise

Inspired by yesterdays interval training, I went out again eagerly today to try out the 180 bpm interval run. Right at the start I realised that it was MARTIN Yelling coaching me along - not Tom Yelling (oops). Martin Yelling


As soon as I got home, I decided to "google" him and at the very least learn a bit about the background of the person who was going to be my "personal" coach for a while.


I set off in spatterings of rain but was soon to be met by glorious sunshine setting the bronze undergrowth alight with a golden glow, the soft glitterings of frost twinkling at me and yesterday's muddy puddles now miniature ice rinks, warning me to be cautious underfoot.


I pushed myself into the 180 bpm and broke the track to follow the brow of the hill,  looking out into the bay on one side and rolling hills on the other, distinctly feeling as though I was flying. The dog bounded ahead not showing any signs of exhaustion and we were soon joined by a dalmation from the village. Not long after the Rhodesian Ridgeback from the farm poked his nose into the field to see what all the fun was about. Dogs really do love their exercise! 


As a person born in the year of the Dog, the day I acknowledged that, like a dog, I need regular exercise was the day I started to feel more positive about myself and realise that I was the answer to my own problems when they occurred.


A phrase from Martin Yelling on motivation, ..."it's the reason why you are doing what you are doing." Is it a strong enough reason to give you staying power? 

Running Just For the Love of Running

Late last night I purchased three CDs of AudioFuel's running music - interval training with Tom Yelling coaching. Although I suspect I should have heard of Tom Yelling before, this is the first time I've come across his name.

As a rule, I'm not a big follower of things "sporty". It reminds me of boring Sunday afternoons spent at grandparents with nothing on the old black and white television except racing or some other sport, with the droning voice of the commentator in the background and the smell of my grandpa's pipe filling the room. Stuck inside with no friends to play with when all I wanted to do was be outside running around involved in some adventure of our making.

It took me the best part of the following morning to download all the music and link it up to my shuffle, which is extremely slow, so by the time I got kitted up for a wet day and out into the "running fields" it was well into the afternoon and I was raring to go.

Starting at 150 bpm and gradually moving to 160 bpm,  it was feeling a bit slow for my enthusiastic mind set. Obediently, I kept the pace in the knowledge that there were 35 minutes to go. Gradually, the interval pace crept up, conveniently occurring at the same time as the route took a gradient.

Hitting 170 bpm I started to feel quite energised and sploshed my way through muddy puddles where the ice had melted, the dog eagerly picking up the pace just ahead of me.

My mind was on the run, my posture, the pace, the focus.

Moving into the final interval at 175 bpm I was reminded to keep my mindset and focus just as I was about to drift into a lesser performance. As with training a set in kung fu it is important not to drift or let the mind wander because you know you've nearly finished but being there in the moment right until the very end.

And although I hadn't heard of Tom Yelling before, I enjoyed running to his coaching and I think he would have enjoyed the 45 minutes running in the wet fields as much as I did.

Excess Baggage

"I scream, I scream .... ', the words repeated. Expressing my own feelings of the moment. I ran, I ran .....

Underworld - Cowgirl (Everything, Everything)

Occasionally, the start of a run is about cooling the mind down as well as warming up the body. Dislodging the unsettled feelings, thoughts, unfinished business that we sometimes accumulate during the day. Running away the frustrations and annoyances. It is because we share our lives with other people, because we are sociable animals and need to share and communicate that inevitably we meet conflict or create it. If we live in a vacuum then it is unlikely that we will have to address issues that unsettle us.

I reflected on the words of John Trudell, "I am just a human being trying to make it in a world that is very rapidly losing its understanding of being human."

Second time round the fields I became aware that metaphorically I was dropping of these little packages of "excess baggage" and felt more settled and at ease as the run progressed. As an exercise I could have "drop off" points for these negative thoughts and thereby create space for something positive.

Keeping the rhythm of the run I considered another phrase that has stuck with me all day, " ...hope is like waiting to be served. It stops us activating our intelligence/gift, that will help us to find a solution to all these things." John Trudell

John Trudell on hope.

And so I let these thoughts run through my mind with the run and felt invigorated. My intelligence had been engaged and negativity replaced with enlightenment.

 

Working through Tiredness

This morning I did a short run and a short meditation, deciding to put my thoughts to my brother-in-law who is house bound with MS. My mind drifted quite frequently as I hadn't slept well the night before and wasn't running long enough to really get myself "out of the way".

I later received a text message from him to say what a sleepless and painful night he had spent so am happy that I could at least send some positive thoughts his way.

Although this blog is called "Running Meditations", I don't think I will get by without references to Kung Fu or Tai Chi as this feeds into practically everything I do and running is in support of that, rather than instead of.

In the evening I was still very tired and didn't feel I had the energy to go to a 2 hour kung fu session but know from experience that I can train through it and come home feeling enormous benefit - so I did go and I did benefit from it enormously.

Today seems to have been about pushing through and not giving in to worldly matters. There are certainly a lot of challenging things going on in my life at various levels but remarkably they seem to be finding there own equilibrium when I don't wallow in them.

It's interesting that blogging is very much what I decide to leave out, rather than what I choose to put in and I think life is like this as well. It's up to me to decide what I want to focus on.

"Virgin Territory"

Well, after spending ALL morning trying to figure out how to set up a basic blog and include things I may need for future postings, I think I can make an initial forage into the blogging world.


The official postings will be beginning in January 2011 when I begin the "Janathon" daily exercise challenge but as I am already involved in physical activity I'm tempted to post a few samples in the meantime.


Until I get to grips with taking and posting photographs, which make blogs far more inviting, I am using some of my partners images from his ongoing project, "Beating the Bounds". www.christancock.com 


The horse photograph was taken when the local farmers horses escaped into these same fields and illustrate the sense of freedom and elation I feel when running up there.


It seems quite appropriate as I have started running the bounds of these same fields since I badly damaged my ankle running the coast path back in June and still feel a bit wary about running up there again.


For now I need to switch off as I'm rather computer dazed!


(Above all, I don't want to make a borrrring blog.)