Like a Polaroid

So I’m going outdoors today and about to run 4x1000 @ 5:36pace/2.5min rest and a few 200’s @ 33’s/35sec rest.

I head off to the track and I’m already in a bad mood that started this morning. It’s hard to shake it off and I know I have to since I’m already putting this workout on a pedestal. I’ve been known to do this, as many runners do. Sometimes it’s the pace, sometimes the workload, sometimes the work itself.

Lately I’ve been dealing with tight hamstrings, one of which suffered a minor strain a couple weeks back that really made my mind uneasy today; especially about working out at any intense paces. Mind you the 1000’s were not at an intense pace, but my mind is racing here so all logic goes out the window.

Now, on top of my bad mood there’s the weather. It’s cold, very windy and very gray. It’s funny how mood can affect even the weather at times. Okay I suppose not literally, but it changes our perspective of it. Instead of feeling a wonderfully chilly, yet crisp and breezy day I was full of resentment and cursed Mother Earth. Then I started to feel the tightness of my hamstrings tug at me.

That’s when I realized not only do our moods affect our environment but also our physical being. I had to put a stop to this.

So I shook off that veil of angst and reminded myself out loud; “Thousands. I’ve done this before, I can do it again.”

Off I went down the back bend of the track and full force into the wind.


By Jennifer Dagan