If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you know I took several breaks from running last year, choosing to focus on other activities like strength and hiking. My body was stressed. I felt super tired. I kept reading about people saying that running could overtax an already stressed body, so I quit. I restarted with commitment to base building last November. I remembered how much I enjoy running and renewed my commitment to try to stay healthy enough to do it. I had some race goals, but knew I had to hold those lightly given the continued prevalence of COVID-19.
Enter January when I found a 5K race I thought my husband might like to do. I proposed the idea, and was delighted when he accepted the challenge to train for it. I put on my coach's hat, referenced a few different Couch to 5K plans and drafted a calendar for him. I thought that he would train himself, but as it were, we started training together. Initially, I would go for a run and then come back and run his shorter training distance with him as a cool down. As his distances increased, though I started running with him first, and then running a bit longer by myself at the end. That greatly decreased my pace per mile, but allowed me to support him as he built up his fitness.
To my surprise, the more my husband and I ran together, the more I enjoyed it and the less I cared about my pace. The more I enjoyed the process of running with my husband, the more I prioritized it. If I was tired on the off days of running with him, I walked rather than ran. If I thought that a different fitness activity might affect running, I didn't do it. I hiked less, watched my weight lifting, and overall let go quite a bit of fitness.
Overall, from January to now, my 5K pace has decreased over a minute a minute. When I look at just the facts, I get a little bit frustrated. But then I think about what I have gained. I have enjoyed extra time with my husband. I have felt less obsessed with running and more appreciative of it. I have tuned into my body and its needs a bit more. I have started to value running more for its secondary social, emotional, and mental benefits than its primary physical benefits. On the whole, I feel in a more balanced place.
Registered Dietitian, recipe developer, and blogger Gena Hamshaw wrote earlier this year about the importance of perspective when it comes to our physical bodies. She shared,
It’s humbling to find ourselves in a different state of ability than the one we used to have. It’s natural to look backwards. But we’re human beings, not machines. We’re changing all the time, often mysteriously and in a way that defies expectations. The best we can do is to meet ourselves where we are and thank our bodies for continuing to give us a home.
A lot has happened since my "peak" level of fitness: a move, a new job, COVID, race cancellations, restrictions that led to a more sedentary life, personal and social tragedies, etc. I can mourn the level of fitness I once had or give thanks for the ability to engage. I can look with envy at my past stats, or think gratefully about the blessing it is to still be living at all after so many have lost their lives. I can resent running with my husband because it slows me down, or enjoy every extra minute of the time that he dedicates to running with me. I have choices about my perspective, and it is pretty apparent which choices benefit me most.
There is fitness, and then there is health. Fitness is primarily physical. Health is so much more. It is a unique interplay of relational, mental, emotional, social, spiritual and so many other factors. While I may have lost some physical fitness over the past year, I have gained so much more. I am grateful, and thankful to God, my body, and my husband for getting me here.
