Monday, October 4, 2010

Round 7: Day 23: Run

My posts are a little out of joint, as I'm playing catch-up by posting a few days at a time. I talked about yoga, yesterday's exercise, but included some of today's news. I'm just out of it a bit.

Anyhow, I forgot to mention that today's exercise was a good, stiff run, prior to having my eye procedure. I was really nervous all week in anticipation of the procedure, and didn't sleep well last night due to stress. I thought that a solid run would really help to relax my body and mind. My body was a bit tight this morning, and I didn't feel as though my running motion was particularly fluid. I could see my shadow cast by the streetlights, and it seemed to me that my upper body had more motion than it probably should have had. It was an interesting feeling, running in the darkness a few moments before daylight. I find that time to be particularly calming, as the stresses of the day (read: eye surgery) haven't yet kicked in. My mind wandered all over the place, picking up remnants of tunes from I don't know where, and thinking about emails and telephone calls. I wasn't able to clear it of thought and stay in the moment, yoga-style, but I was certainly distracted mentally during the duration of the run. Before I knew it, the run was over, although I was about 30 seconds longer than I would have liked to have been. I guess the distractions resulted in the additional time.

On the other hand, the run served me well, helping to dissipate the pent-up energy I'd been holding in for the past few days. When it came time for the eye procedure, I was nervous, but I had an idea about how to control my body's stress. I don't panic at an elevated heart rate, because I know it's been much higher than it was during the procedure, and I know that won't last forever. A little deep breathing, a relaxing of the body overall, and allowing the mind to drift was all I needed to get by. There are certainly benefits to regular exercise.

No comments: