Journal entry 070210: Experimenting

OK, I’ll go ahead and admit it:
There is no logic to running long distances. At least, none that make sense to
anyone who doesn’t want to do it.

I can make a list of why I like it –
the battle against my own desire to quite early, the peace of
meditation-on-the-move, the self-awareness that comes from so much time alone
within my own thoughts, the emotional transformation from finishing another
marathon, the short list of skills required, feeling the earth under my feet
and hearing the buzz of a community, the camaraderie of fellow distance runners
telling war stories, the vanilla milkshake reward earned after 15 miles – but I
understand none of those are enough for most people I know.

And marathon training, well there is
no logic to running 17 miles on a hot Friday morning in June, either. All I say
can say is that I still hear the marathon drumbeat in the back of my head and
I’m not yet ready to hang up my shoes.

But I cannot forget that I have 35,098
miles on my legs and feet and knees, and like most people I am getting older
and slower day-by-day, not than younger and faster.

I once heard Jim
Rohn say, “Casual living breeds casualties.” I think one reason I’ve been
hobbling on one bad knee since 2004 is that I got too casual about my running.
I thought I knew all I needed to know. I stopped paying attention to things
like strength training and stretching because I didn’t need them any longer. I
was beyond all that simple stuff.

I forgot about what George Sheehan
taught us: Our life is an experiment of one. I stopped experimenting. I stopped
learning. And, I got hurt. Now I am getting better, slowly, but it took a lot
of deliberate action on my part.

For example, I’ve been going to a
weight-lifting class a couple of times a week. I never did anything with
weights before that and I ended up with a lot of imbalance and weakness. I’m
much stronger now, especially in my quads and glutes and back. I believe that
will help prevent future injuries and stabilize existing aches and pains.

I’ve also been attending a Vinyasa
yoga class about once a week. I spent too many years, about 50, not stretching,
and this class has helped me overcome that a little. It has helped me learn
better balance, and given me greater flexibility and strength. I even breath
better, which has improved my trombone playing. Who knew that would happen?

A few years ago Cyndi and I
discovered a technique known as Chi Running.
I believe it’s allowed my sore knee to find peace, and taught me how to stop
hurting myself in the future. I don’t buy into the chi energy part of the
technique, but I do believe that learning to land on my mid-foot instead of my
heel has stopped further damage and will allow me to keep running for a long
time.

And because of the patient work of
Gladys Nichols at Seton Medical in Austin
I have strengthened my core muscles and worked to achieve better muscle
balance. Before Gladys I couldn’t run more than 5 minutes at a time; since
Gladys I have completed one marathon and I am currently training for my next.

Maybe the weirdest experiment I’ve
tried in my journey is barefoot running. Well, not exactly barefoot, even
though I tried that once and it took the skin on my feet a week to grow back,
but I have been running once a week in a pair of Vibram
Five-Fingers. I hesitate to call them shoes since they look more
like gloves for the feet. They have helped me learn mid-foot landing better
than anything else I’ve tried.

And I can’t go on without mentioning
Jeff Galloway’s run/walk technique. Once
I started using it on long training runs I realized I could finally hope for
many more marathons.

So I’m sorry if I am boring you
non-distance-runners with this litany of experiments, but I believe in living
intentionally, and that means trying new things. Just last week I was reading
from a devotional book and it quoted Hebrews 12:2 from The Message and it
reminded me of my recent adventures. “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began
and finished the race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost
sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he
could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever.”

The first phrase that caught my
attention was “began and finished the race we’re in.” Since I hope to keep
doing that for many more years I felt a personal attachment to that sentence.

But the most important phrase was
this: “Study how he did it.” I hope I can study Jesus with the same deliberate
attention I’ve applied to my running.

I have been doing spirituality for
so long it is tempting to get casual about it. But casual living breeds
casualties, and I don’t want my life with Jesus to become a casualty; I want to
be always learning, always experimenting, always hoping.

“I run in the path of Your
commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32

To learn more about Berry’s newest book, “Running
With God:” www.runningwithgodonline.com

Follow Berry on Twitter at @berrysimpson … Contact
Berry directly: berry@stonefoot.org