We Need Not Rest From What We Love…
The day was grey and a little chilly, rain hanging in the air…
I didn’t feel much like leaving the cosiness of our cottage, but I remembered the techniques of going running ‘whatever whenever’, that I had adopted over years of living in the UK…
Just step out of the door… Step over any resistance, and certainly never start a thought process about it! Clear any slightly disappointed feeling that the skies are not blue – and ‘Just do it..’
Many many years of experience have taught me that there will be inevitable reward within this process; in the dance of the running step – and even more so now that my feet feel alive with the feel of the earth beneath their soles, their movement unhindered…
I chose to run five miles around the grassy playing fields in front of the leisure centre and loved every step. I gave the oak trees and their acorns a wide berth, and enjoyed the cool grass and the cool air. I circled happily feeling the now familiar feeling that I could run forever and ever…
However – I am having an easy week this week, so after nine laps – five miles, I sat on a bench to brush the grass off my feet… It is week ten of my commitment to run 40 miles per week – and to achieve an average of 40 for the last ten weeks, I only need run 35 miles this week…
I had thought an easier week a good idea before I did the maths, and so this is fitting with the grey days and uninviting weather… Doing a bit less, equals more…. Thirty five miles feels like a skip in the park ?
A chance to reflect on the ten weeks of consistent training in many different lands; different climates, terrains. Observe the magic that has happened through simply putting one foot in front of the other.
Rest of course is of value, but if we are relaxed then the rhythms will happen in the flow of our intuition, our body wisdom, our inner compass will direct us when to go fast, when to slow, when to stop completely… It will help us create and play our own tune, and set our own pace. We all travel at different speeds and it is important that we honour our own and find our own mph…
Anadi’s and my lifestyle provides the rests too, through the constant change which has meant being present and in the moment is very easy… And from one week to the next it can feel like a month or even two has passed. I find that this discrepancy with time lends itself to not getting stuck in it… And I find that recovery from a big run, or a big effort, or even a long journey, can happen from one moment to the next… One run to the next…
It can seem so long ago since a run I may have completed only a day ago, but in a different land entirely…
Running is a natural action too and in truth, I have never been one for formal rest days from running… Running is what I love to do, so why would I rest from it? Of course, if I need to take a break for any reason I do – when my body says ‘no’ ? – but I am intuitive about it… And even in these last years where the quality and quantity slipped away, I have still maintained my daily practise of stepping out of the front door…
When I was running at international level, my ‘rest day’ was two easy five mile runs! ? One in the morning and one in the evening…
This isn’t conventional wisdom, but then I observe that rest is an inner state. And if even our big efforts are carried out from a relaxed still place then they will not ask as much or take as much from us… They will come through flow.
If we are permanently strung up and tense then rest is never happening even when ‘doing nothing’… Whereas if our inner stillness is accessed, discovered, practised then we need never rest from what we love…
And after my run, I went into the gym… A place I also always love to be.
And it was indoors!
I have been running all of my life – it feels I was born to run. In the running step I experienced freedom and my true expression. I came to see that I needed to ‘get out of the way of myself’ and let my energy flow through the running step; allow it to express itself in the dance and the motion of running. I ran for England and GB for some years. My first international was in 1979, a three mile cross country race; and I continued to run at international level until 1993. Two of my best results were first place in the Dublin City Marathon in 1985 and 7th place woman, 3rd British woman in the 1986 London Marathon in a time of 2.36.31, which gained me selection for the Commonwealth Games.
As a little girl I ran barefoot for many years, and then I put on shoes to race around the world. Fifty years later I am travelling the world as a nomad with my husband Anadi and I have taken off my shoes and I am running barefoot again….
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