May 25th, 2021 - Tuesday
- Kyle Louv
- May 25, 2021
- 3 min read
About a month ago I installed Strava on my phone. Fitness tracking app for runners and cyclists mostly. Not the first time I’ve started a training program, nor the first time I’ve gotten excited about a new way to track my running. It used to be calendars, mostly the glossy paper kind with pictures of kittens or mountains or something. Almost always found lying around, usually halfway through the year already. Figured it was time to move into the smart-everything age.
Today was my 31st run recorded through the app. Not notable, other than being about a month. My body is responding well to the training so far, but I’m admittedly in the honeymoon phase of a comeback. Runners will get it. If you’ve trained seriously before, even if you haven’t been running more than a couple little jaunts a week just so you can still say you were a runner once, the first month back to serious running is gravy. Most of us can run 20-30 miles a week by accident, so a little bit of planning and some fresh legs, and probably fresh shoes (gotta reward ourselves in advance for the training plan we are definitely committing to) go a long way towards making the first month roll by. The legs start to remember what 7:30 mile pace feels like, and you can start daydreaming about how you’re going to really do it this time. Really get back into shape and chase all those goals you didn’t want to tell anyone about because they’re ridiculous. At least that’s how it goes for me, and how it's gone every time I’ve tried to get back into shape since college. This is the 5th time I think.
So why a blog? Maybe it’s some lingering aftereffect of the pandemic, or a result of looking in the mirror and seeing someone who doesn’t have forever to figure it out in front of them anymore, but I want this time to be different. I’ve known for a while that running is the thing that makes me tick. The thing that I can fall back on to find clarity and fight back the manic-depressive crazy that’s lurking. I’ve been saying for a while now that I was a runner, that I ran in college, that I used to be pretty fast. All past tense. But I am a runner. Right now. And I want to really see what I can do and where it can take me. YOLO, or maybe something that means the same thing but some sadboy rapper wouldn't get tattooed on his knuckles.
I plan to keep this blog as a weekly update on my training, most likely including fresh thoughts out of my post run brain oven. As you’ve probably gathered, this will mostly be written for other runners. I’ve been thinking about my love of teaching though (maybe we really all do end up like our parents) and how I’d like to bring more people into running, maybe start a community run club or something like that. We’ll see. During covid, I think a lot of us thought about why we were doing what we spent all of our time doing. It was hard to look at the ever-climbing death numbers (still climbing, btw. Fucking pandemic.) and not think at least a little bit about our own limited time here. Running brings me joy. Getting other people running brings me joy. Geeking out about shoes and watches and crazy performances is my thing. We should do what brings us joy, and that’s what I’m here to do and write about. My journey to do what brings me joy.
So that’s it. Really good 7.5 miles today, legs felt great out of the car and my foot was barely noticeable. 33 last week with another 35 planned for this one. Trying to be conservative.
Talk next week, and keep running!
-Kyle

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