Thursday, June 14, 2007

Slower to Go Faster

By about mile three of this morning's run I began wondering why everything felt so good. It felt as if I had just started out. Then I realized that yesterday was an official rest day. That one day of rest transformed today's run into a quicker and smoother experience. In the midst of focusing on training and putting in the miles, it is easy to lose touch with the incremental physical toll that such this training regimen is taking. A rest day is not only good for my body, but also for my mind. And planned rest is the best. If I miss a day because of weather or schedule, then I feel bad and tend to get down on myself. If rest is written in on the schedule, then I am free to be OK with not running that day.

I wonder how many people are functioning in daily life with little or no rest. Not so much a vacation, but rest in the midst of regular life. That is something that I need to get proficient with--how to get sufficient rest in the midst of work and family obligations to stay at the top of my game (such as that is). "Daily rest" must fit within the structures of the rest of life or it will get squeezed out by other responsibilities.

Jim Anderson from the NCD-EFCA ran a sabbath retreat that I attended where he tried to convince us of the value of regular sabbath time. Sometimes I think that I should have paid more attention.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais.