COVID, week 33 + vanilla with some sprinkles

COVID, week 33 + vanilla with some sprinkles

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I can’t be the only one who has figured out a strange but completely doable shelter-in-place lifestyle and rhythm to day-to-day life. It’s not to say it isn’t chaos — some days, all it feels like is chaos — but there’s structure (or structureish) more often than there isn’t. Even with all the weird modifications and restrictions that COVID has inflicted on us and on our day-to-days, I imagine that nearly all of us now have some recognizable pattern to our days (particularly our weekdays). 

All of this pertains to running and training, of course. In normal times, many of us (myself included) would be training for something — a race, a mileage or elevation goal, a time trial, whatever. Once COVID upended the racing calendar for the year in what feels like millenia ago, my motivation to run transitioned rather quickly from train hard for a marathon PR to train for life for the foreseeable future. 

the nice thing about running just ‘cuz is that it allows you to enjoy your surroundings

Stay healthy, leave the house every single day, do something for myself (and thus, for my family): it was enough of a motivator to help get me out the door every single day since early March. Admittedly, sometimes going out for another ol’ training run “for life” isn’t — wait for it! — super exciting. (shocker, right)

(Quick aside to note that absolutely, yes, of course I’m grateful for every single mile I can run and for any time I get to spend outside. My privilege isn’t lost on me; I’m just being brutally honest that sometimes going for a run just ‘cuz I can isn’t all that exciting). 

I joke that most of my 2020 miles have been of the vanilla variety (see that whole training for life thing) and that my speeds are slow and slower. I have no qualms signing up for virtual races and challenges because I want to support the race businesses whose events I’d usually be running, but I have zero desire to virtually race race in the absence of the actual thing. If you can, kudos. That’s (really) hard.  

Well, not that we’re necessarily turning a corner on this year or anything — COVID is still ravaging communities and families all over the world, my kids are in DL for the foreseeable future, C’s remote for the foreseeable future, I have no future travel plans to see my family on the other side of the country (which really stings), and so on — but it’s time for a change, at least pertaining to my running. 

Nothing wild here, just some good, ol’ fashioned work sprinkled in between all the vanilla. Spicy stuff, a different type of variety than what I’d usually get in marathon training: hill sprints, mile effort repeats, shorter distance TTs, mid-run pick-ups, routine end-of-run strides, that type of thing. The variety is sufficiently engaging to leave me feeling excited about the opportunity (a new stimulus!) yet still minor enough, in the grand scheme of my weekly volume, to not leave me feeling antsy and worried about whatever ridiculous reason I can conjure to justify said unnecessary worrying. 

When you haven’t been running fast for a while, the bar is pretty low, and expectations are virtually non-existent. Honestly, it’s pretty refreshing. 

Last week, in ARP, on one of the paved closed-off-to-cars roads, I did hill sprints up a hill that was about a half-mile long, at what was supposed to feel like 5k effort, for like 60 seconds at a time. For someone like me who feels much more at home in the marathon than in a 5k, two things immediately stood out to me. First: throwing down 5k pace mid-run anytime is usually a bit startling, often leaving my legs and body feeling completely blindsided as to what in the world just happened. Second: the absurdity of even the mere idea of trying to run fast and hard up a hill is hilarious — like how is this supposed to work?!?! Doesn’t one of these cancel out the other???

All of this said, let me be the first to tell you that hill sprints, even partially up a long-ass hill, is also really freaking fun. See the aforementioned honestly, it’s pretty refreshing commentary. 

Earlier this week, I hopped on a track for some fast running for the first time in … months? A year? Maybe more? Hard to know. At any rate, I spent very little time there, relative to the rest of my run, but if I initially thought that last week’s hill sprints were absurd, let me tell you the one about the marathoner whose coach tasked her to go run timed repeats at mile (!) effort pace. 0_o 

Fortunately, the repeats were short enough (45 seconds, 3 times/set, with 1 minute recovery between each rep, and 3 minutes recovery between the 2 sets), but again, when you’re used to going at slow or slower paces, trying to hit mile paces is akin to jumping in the coldest water you can find and reacting accordingly. 

Again, however: it’s a blast. 

It’s hard work for sure, and we’re just getting started on this new project, but it is a refreshing reset and just enough variety to diminish some of the vanilla that has been my running of late. 

Also fun fact: I don’t think I’ve run a timed mile since middle school. (I took PE in high school during summer school, and I don’t recall having to run a timed mile then). Suffice it to say that I’ve been out of middle school for many, many (many) years. 

What does all of this have to do with COVID-19, next week’s presidential election, or any of the many other dumpster fires raging right now that I’ve been bantering about in this space for the better part of the last 33 weeks? I could probably devise some sort of tenuous connection, but for simplicity’s sake, it doesn’t, really.  

So many people have discovered (or re-discovered) intentional movement during shelter-in-place — whether that’s running, walking, hiking, run/walking, walk/running, or any other combination of propelling yourself in a generally, more-often-than-not, forward direction — and it’s fantastic. Few things make me happier than to see people taking care of themselves by doing any of the aforesaid. 

Keep going, friends, doing whatever it is that you’re doing to stay well during this super challenging time, and especially as we’re going into the typically more-illness-prone winter and colder months, do everything in your power to stay healthy. 

And when you need to break out of the vanilla, consider something as simple and child-like as moving faster every now and then. 

It may be the last thing you’d ever think of doing on your own, but it could be juuuuuust enough of a stimulus that it becomes the new thing to which you look forward each week. 

Ditch the expectations of how you think it ought to be, stay in the interval and focused on the work at hand, and keep going in such a way that next time will be better.

Maybe the connections aren’t so tenuous after all.

COVID, week 32 + getting you through

COVID, week 32 + getting you through

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If memory serves, the kids have been in distance learning school for nearly 50 days already; we’re thick into the third trimester of this pandemic, with over 220,000 lives lost; and the last day of the election is in a week and change (sure, Election Day is on 11/3, but since people have been able to vote for weeks now, I think it’s more accurate to think of it all actually ending on 11/3, not beginning). 

Any of this on its own could easily be anxiety-inducing; all of it, together, is a completely different story. 

So what are you doing to mitigate all the stress that you’re shouldering? I talk all the time about how important physical activity, specifically running, is for my well-being, but sometimes, the non-running feels really rad, too. Sometimes it’s helpful to have the reminder. 

One thing that felt really good recently? Voting. I don’t think I’ve missed an election since I was eligible to vote, and admittedly, it’s something that I often feel “proud” to do (that’s not exactly the right word, but go with me here) because it’s a huge responsibility and a deep honor. You don’t need to be a historian to know that voting isn’t something that everyone, everywhere, gets to do. 

This time around, however, maybe because we’re all at home 24/7 and because politics have been the topic du jour in our household lately, it just felt different to vote at home, at my kitchen table, the same place where I sit shoulder-to-shoulder with my daughter in K every day, (and the same place where I do all my work, and the same place where I eat all my meals, and on and on) and participate in a civic responsibility that so many in this country are suppressed from doing. 

I’ve taken my kids to the polls before, so they’ve seen it and “know” what it entails, but this year was memorable, to say the least. I don’t know if it was relief, or hope, or fear, or a combination of all of that (and more) when I submitted my ballot this year, but it was deeply satisfying.

Aside from voting, and in addition to my daily run, nearly every morning, during our morning break in distance learning, I sweep leaves and little flowerbud-things (scientific name) that are falling in droves from the trees in front of my neighbors’ and my houses. It’s so mundane — I’m talking about sweeping leaves here, nothing earth-shattering — but honestly, there is something refreshing about it. 

Maybe it just seems so weirdly special due to the small fact that it’s our outdoor reprieve from screens for about a half hour or because it’s our time to interact with other humans outside for a quick moment (usually the mail carrier). The distinct, before-and-after transformation is also really gratifying. I take something that looks undesirable, and through sheer effort, I make it better. I think there’s a lot of value in simplicity, especially when everything is so heavy with nuance right now, and moving leaves and petals from one place to another to make our outdoor environment look better is about as simple as you can get. Many mornings, I sweep the sidewalks and walkways after talking to our mail carrier, with my fourth or four-hundredth cup of tea of the morning in hand, so in some ways, I feel like I may be living my best elder citizen life right now. 

not a picture of sweeping leaves and petals but also something deeply satisfying – running while both girls bike 🙂

And when I’m not running, writing, voting, or sweeping leaves and the little petal things that are the bane of my existence, I try to connect with friends and family as much as I (safely) can. Group video calls are a regular occurrence for me (and have been for much of the pandemic), and it’s nice to feel so connected, even as we’re away from each other and will be for the foreseeable future. Don’t get me wrong, videoconference fatigue is definitely real, but if that’s the best we can do right now, then so be it. We really can’t speak enough of the importance of connecting with, and looking out for, your people right now.  

Pertaining to connecting with our people, the big news in these parts is that within the past week, SCC moved to a more favorable COVID tier, so aspects of normal life are beginning to open up more than they have been since mid-March (think movie theaters, dining, bars, bowling alleys, and a lot more I’m spacing on). That said, I don’t think it’s prudent to go back to the way things were pre-32 weeks ago. I mean, I would love to, but I don’t want to be irresponsible and inadvertently hurt someone. 

This is one of those nuanced, not-quite-good, not-quite-bad developments in life during COVID that makes mundane tasks like raking leaves and petals refreshingly welcome. It’s great that we’re at a place right now where life can sorta begin to resemble what it looked like pre-COVID, but the answers to the question of yes but at what cost remains unknown.  

Being so far away, for so long, from my family sucks bad — and especially since we can’t even have a date on the calendar to which we can look forward to a reunion or a trip — but it’s temporary. It’s not going to be like this forever. I tell myself and my family this near-daily. (And besides, can’t say it enough, distancing is saving people’s lives). 

And finally, in the past week or so, in one of the few circumstances wherein I’m in control of what’s on the TV screen, my kids and I have found great entertainment value in the Netflix show Sing On!. They know a lot of the songs from the KidzBop versions, so it’s basically like a party of three in the living room each time we watch the show. We take turns evaluating the contestants and figuring out who should make it and who should be eliminated, and it’s pretty fantastic overall. Sometimes an escape — that doesn’t come in the form of physically working our bodies — ain’t half bad. 

and yes, definitely get something else to occupy your mind and body that’s not running … buuuuuuuuut if it really brings you a happiness and peace that’s beyond compare, all good. May I suggest hill sprints? (thanks, coach)

Take care of yourself and others in this next week and change because you’ll (and they’ll) surely need it. 

Keep reading and listening. 

Stay healthy and safe. 

Vote (in the next 13 days).