Why I’m Not Going Running Today

Sometimes the morning just slips away.  I notice this when it comes to my fitness routine.  Yesterday, it was cloudy, spitting rain, and chilly, yet I put on my running shoes and just after Mary left the house there I was out there pounding the pavement, running my dutiful three miles plus and feeling great. I even got the attention of my neighbor, who commented over the fence about seeing me running in the rain. “Good for you!” she said.

This morning I was awakened by Mary with coffee and changed into the running outfit–a fine morning I noticed, with the sun glinting over the back yard.  But for some reason, even though I had the gear on, I began reading the Recorder and poof!  I felt the momentum sag.

I read more of the paper, did the usual morning things like make toast and drink more coffee, and then….sank.  There was nobody here to tell me to run, Mary had left for school.  So I was confronted with my own indecision, which is so easy to convert into inaction, which explains why most people don’t run three miles a day.  I know there are those who are more dutiful, as if they are answering to a higher power, and following a divine calling to get their cherished exercise.

No, for me there are some days when I just can’t motivate. I think about how much I wanted to have the run be over, think about those moments when I am walking and not running, and then look at the clock, and then begin feeling worried because I have to get work done and nobody in the world knows what I do or when I do it…so it all gels into a morning where I don’t go running.  I slink back into my room, change out of the running gear, run the shower and put on civilian gear.

I’m not going to run today. But I might just run tomorrow.