How was your long weekend? Mine was just catching up on sleep. I gained three pounds because of lack of exercise, not to mention failing to complete a 21k half marathon over the weekend getting lost during the race, with no water in sight and then not enough road marshals. Enough of that though, as I will talk more about that one in a race review. For today, we’re now on Day 9 on 31 Days to Running! And if you’ve been journeying with me and doing your runs, chances are it has been three months that you’ve been running.
So what’s next? Well, the next tip is pretty basic — Keep a Journal.
In this day and age where people use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it is easy to keep a journal of sorts. But if you’re the traditional one, try buying a notebook or a diary. So what exactly do you write down related to your runs? Here are a few things you could write about in just one entry!
One, write about what gear you are wearing. Remember the post I wrote about running shoes? Well, you need to write something about it too if your feet hurt during the first few runs and if it still hurts after three months, chances are you are wearing something that is not suited for you. Either it is the shoes, the socks, the running style or a combination of the three — you need to figure it out and by keeping tabs of things you will find out for sure what the problem really is. You can even go as far as checking your feet as to what part of your foot develops blisters, calluses and dead toenails!
Two, write about your emotions that you have before, during and after each run. There may be times that you don’t feel like running at the start, but halfway through it you feel much better that you did. There are numerous studies that have been found that expressing one’s emotions by writing them down is therapeutic. No wonder there are more and more men who are sending messages in their facebook and twitter accounts!
Three, write about the weather. How’s this going to help? If you’re going to make running into something akin to the air that you breathe — meaning it is something that you can’t live without anymore, then sooner or later you need to memorize the best days of the year or the best weeks of the month to run around. This also helps you plot out your runs in the future and anticipate bad weather. For instance, there are many advocates to ditch gym memberships and just run on the road even when it rains. Personally, I do not mind running in the rain. But for most people, this is a drag and can certainly affect one’s mood too. In addition, running in the rain requires a certain degree of preparedness as well. Like, why bother running in the rain if you only have one pair of running shoes? It will take a few days to dry them out. [Hmm, makes me realize this is better explained in another post]. See what I mean?
Four, write about interesting things that you observe while you are running! I have yet to write about it, but a few weeks ago I had another chance to run around Ayala Alabang Village. To my shock, I was informed by the security personnel at the gate of the village that guests are not allowed to walk towards the house they are visiting, much less run towards it. I had to explain that I specifically informed my friend that I would be running towards their house! The security personnel then had to double check with the resident and then all throughout the course of my run, there were security personnel sending radio messages to the main security office up until I reached the house of my friend! Imagine that! For the first time in my life, I felt like a VIP and also felt like a hoodlum on a run and trying to dodge the authorities! My point here is that you never know what interesting things you can see and observe while you run. It could be as simple as a sunrise, as beautiful as a sunset or as pretty as a baby’s smile that greets you in your neighborhood while doing your morning run.
Fifth, write about the people you pray for. Desmond Tutu, is a runner. He does his morning runs of about 30-45 minutes almost on a daily basis. He also happens to be the second South African to receive the Noble Prize for Peace. Each day that he runs, he uses his time to pray for his country, to pray for specific people that he encountered the previous day and pray for the day ahead for strength to do his ministry. Running is a great avenue of getting to know God on the road, literally. Seriously, when was the last time you really prayed for someone other than yourself? I know that I get caught up with myself at work that I forget that there’s another 6 billion people out there in this world, each with a heart, mind and soul unique to mine. And each one is as valuable in the sight of God. The question is not so much what bothers me right now and what challenges I face, but what are the things that we can pray for in behalf of others? At the end of the day, if you can’t even pray for others, then at least try to have a conversation with God while you run. For in the end, prayer is all about conversation and not about just presenting requests.
Tutu is the second South African to win the Noble Prize for Peace
Whatever form of journal you keep, electronic or otherwise, make sure it is something that you can easily access and bring along. More so, I am a staunch advocate of the paper based journal. I know this means that more trees get cut down, but burned paper can be restored a lot easier than deleted computer files. And I’ve already lost three years worth of electronic journals. The only thing that I like about the lost journals is that a lot of those years have angst written in it. So sometimes it is a good thing to forget the past completely, especially if they are things that only bring us down. It doesn’t mean that we should forget the past altogether.
For example, when you read your running journal a year from now and see that your running time is still the same for a 10 kilometer run after a year, then that is an indication that you are not improving at all. What caused it? Is it your busy schedule? What things can you give up to improve it? A journal helps pierce through your own history and makes you aware if you are improving or not. So then, are you readily to take that pen and write down your thoughts on yours runs?
pre, maybe you might want to list and compare running journal sites like dailymile.com, etc.?