Does anybody else remember the song, “Starting Over” by John Lennon? It’s a great song and it came to my mind when I put out on FB what should I blog about and my friends Cheryl and Heather both wanted to know about starting over. Here’s my favorite part (in order for this to work running has to be a person, in fact, running has to be John Lennon)

It’s been too long since we took the time
No-one’s to blame, I know time flies so quickly
But when I see you darling
It’s like we both are falling in love again
It’ll be just like starting over, starting over 

I don’t love starting over after a break from running.

I think it’s the hardest thing we do as runners. Yes, I think it’s even harder then we you start the first time. Not physically harder – we’ve all seen the stats on how it’s actually much easier to get back into shape after a time out, your body remembers, muscle memory, blah blah blah . . . but it FEELS harder. MUCH harder. Because when we first start, we have ZERO expectations. We are amazed and thrilled with every step, every mile, every workout. We are blissfully naive to how hard it’s going to be and that wide-eyed beginner enthusiasm gets us up and out the door, knowing that each day will be better than the one before. And you know what else? In the beginning, we improve very quickly – it’s a huge leap from couch potato to “runner” and we feel it in our bones!

But then something happens. An injury. A parent gets ill. Weather. A kid gets sick. Our jobs get in the way. We get sick. You name it.

And we find ourselves (sigh) starting over. And this time, we know what we “used” to be able to do. We know how it “used” to feel. AND (bonus) we know how hard it’s going to be to get back where we were.

So we need to fall back in love with running. One foot fall at a time. I want you to go out and run for time, not distance. 30 minutes. That’s it. And maybe consider not even taking your Garmin (WHAT?!?! This woman’s crazy, I’m not reading her blog anymore;). Well, the thing is, this can’t be about comparing to where you used to be. It has to be about now. And now we are here. Right here. And we are going to get better every time we get out the door. No comparisons to last time, no pushing ourselves further than we can to get back there more quickly (because we all know you’ll just get hurt again!). Just 30 minutes. 3X a week. For a month.

We can do THAT, right?? Oh, and because I can’t resist this little gem that was brought to my attention, I’ll quote some bible for ya (ironic the reference, yes??).

Psalm 26:2 “Test me, Oh Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.” (I think we can insert “and run” after the walk part, don’t you?)

OK, GO.

Happy running,

Jen