As It Stands

As it stands I will never run again. I am forgoing the use of my running blog at www.ClaimYourJourney.com, that site is for runners, and as it stands, I am not... presently. Moving on, I WILL NEVER RUN AGAIN, I SAY. This injury has loomed far too long.

Side note 1: In Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest" there exists one of my favorite quotes. "If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life." To that I say bollocks. 


I am absolutely at my wits end. If you want to fully understand how deeply rooted this narcissism goes, read on. I was scrolling through some photos of me and other people that I have run with. I ran across a few pictures that depicted a scenery from around Louisiana with the appropriate clothing for weather conditions. The enigmatic portion of human psychological control as calibrated by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov would have been given to the association of 1st year children when I tell you I became upset to realize I would never be able to wear my CW-X Compression tights again!

This is the juncture of my current juxtaposition, sanity & reality. Where is reason? Where is rationale? Where is inner dialogue for the sake of perennial stability? Although I don't think this will last 2 years.

I guess what I am saying is, I am ready to run again. I was hoping to be back by the end of July. Here we are; in my most recent reenactment of a dance seen from House Party 1 where Kid and Play do that foot thing and dance in a semi-circle, I have yet more strenuous pain in my Achilles.

Fin

Ole Glory Crossfit

They're doing it right. I will start by saying just that.

As many of you know, I embarked on a desire to start doing Crossfit a couple of months ago. It was a catastrophe. The gym was super nice but the people were less than impressive. The relationship ended as quickly as it had begun. This is the point where I could say, "the search was on" for a new gym, but it wasn't, I was ultimately done. The only other gym I knew of was on Cajundome Blvd. and I wasn't travelling that far to workout, for all that I would have gotten a membership to Red's. (On a side note, I have heard wonderful things about Ragin' Crossfit)

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, my and family and I were going to Morvant's in Broussard to grab burgers. Driving past I saw a building with a huge tractor tire out front, I thought, "I want a tractor tire!" It was then I realized I was looking at a Crossfit gym, a gym right here in Broussard, La. I noted the phone number to memory, it was easy, clearly a cell phone, and made a point to call on the following day.

I spoke to one of the owners, a husband, Bo Armentor. Everything about the conversation was delightful from the greeting to the information provided about the gym. I was really excited to give it another go. I arrived the following morning at 0500 as noted and I was immediately introduced to everyone in the gym. All were laughing and joking, at 0500 mind you, and it seemed like a good time.

Long story short I am really happy at Ole Glory. Bo and his wife Natalie have been wonderful hosts and the patrons are equally as delightful. It has been a few days shy of 1 month since I signed up but the relationship has blossomed and so have my results. Everyone is helpful and encouraging and most of the time really sweaty.

Bo & Natalie, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to get back in the swing and cult following of Crossfit. I look forward to our relationship growing exponentially over the coming years.

PS - I think there are more girls than guys at this gym!!! Perhaps that's why Bo was so nice to me, he needs me to knock down walls with him for expansion!!!!!

Trail Running Psychology

It's only been a few months since I began this new phenomenon of my punitive existence, but it has proved more fecund than I initially anticipated. I think all of us who commit to activity such as running, start with a very simple and acrimonious agenda, but as we become more and more inundated with the Bucephalus of that endeavor, the truth (even unbeknownst to us) becomes clear!

For me trail running was something to do because it was new and hip, so to speak. I thought it would be fun and ultimately take me out of my comfort zone, well it did just that and much much more.

We as people scurry quite fixedly about our day, constantly conversing about whats to come, tomorrow, the next day, next week, next year even. We query the time, not to know what is now, but rather to gauge what we can do in the allotted time of day that is left. We treat time as though it were the facet of all that is true and righteous, thusly, we are a slave to the future as the present does not concern us less tragedy befall that moment. What we don't realize is that the very future that we pine to arrive only so we can forget it, will eventually be the present and just like that (Vroom) it's gone again!

Trail running doesn't allow the future to exist without recognition of the present, if you attempt to circumvent the present, the future will know and you will be punished. In my trail running I have learned a few things, "eventually I will get to my final destination so the time doesn't matter. I do not care where I have to go, my only concern is where I am now. The next step will allow for the steps to follow, without that step, I AM standing still, keep moving! How will feel in 5 miles? Doesn't matter, how do I feel now matters!"

I hadn't realized until recently, my psychology on the trail was carrying over in to my psychology off the trail, and it was working. I was treating my days like a trail run, my week like chain of trail runs. Whether in the office or on the trail or even at home, you have good hours and you have bad hours. The good hours, those are easy, no worries there, but the bad hours are the test to what you can accomplish. If I am running Chicot I know I have 22 miles ahead of me, no turn or decision will change that once I go. In those 22 miles there are good hours and there are absolute shit hours. In the 8+ hours I work in a day, the same rules apply. So as cliche as it sounds, it is literally one step at a time.

I didn't think I was coming to this conclusion. It was not a gradual epiphany, I woke up and I realized it all at once. Trail running has been a major benefit, and quite frankly I am lost without it as of late, I am hoping to regain my trails slowly starting next week I will run 10 with Geaux Run at Chicot. I am a bit scared as I do not feel 100% yet despite no pain being present anymore. We shall see what happens. Just keep running!