I'm a data geek and I do love my smartwatch. I enjoy reviewing all the data captured for running and overall health. There are times, however, when I admit that it's not my friend. I have to be able to accept the good with the bad. There's no sugar coating, it calls it likes it sees it.
Take this past overnight. At 1:39am my watch buzzes and I see the dreaded Heart Rate notification that an irregular heartbeat has been detected .... ugh, Afib again. While it's a chronic condition I manage, there are side effects like fatigue and knowing that I need to back off from exertion activities until I clear through. These episodes come periodically and I have to adapt and back off when they happen. So, unfortunately, that meant accepting that I wouldn't be running leg 30 (Goshen to Sunapee) in the morning.
When we're young (I'll classify that as an age under 40) the mantra "no pain, no gain" is in our vernacular. North of 60, however, the wiser course is to avoid the pain and live to fight another day. So there I was lying in bed with the words of Dirty Harry from Magnum Force running through my head .... "A man's got to know his limitations". Words he utters as Briggs (Hal Holbrook) meets his deadly fate. If you've forgotten, or haven't seen it .... here you go ....
One of my objectives with RUNNH234 is to have fun, as best I can, each time out. I don't want to put the full journey in jeopardy by pushing through to run a leg when my body says "time out". I love goals and trying to stick to a schedule, but I learned back this winter with legs 12 (Keene to Roxbury) and 13 (Roxbury to Harrisville) that one day's accomplishment isn't always worth it (I wound up having to take all of March off from running to recover from injury caused that day).
Early on I was concerned about momentum and proving that I was really going to keep at it. Now that I'm past the 10% mark I realize there's a long way to go, but that it's a challenge I can work toward one leg at a time. Picking my spots for when to run legs is important. This next one (Goshen to Sunapee) is nearly 10 miles with 800+ feet of vertical climb (top 7 so far) and the temperature is set to get near 90 degrees. So backing off today is the wise move. Twenty years ago, I'd have run it today without a second thought.
Navigating this journey and the inevitable obstacles is part of the overall challenge and in the end will bring that much more satisfaction. Like with every marathon I've ever run, the pride from completing the distance is all the more satisfying realizing the effort and energy put forth to be able to even consider running the race in the first place.
To complete this journey I need to be able to run comparable distances for the next 5+ years. I don't want to blow up along the way and not be able to finish what I started. So, yes, Man's got to know his limitations. And this man is going to sit out today and be ready to resume when the time is right, which I fully expect to be soon .... just not today.
Comentários