Running is a fun sport, a good way to exercise and a nice way to get away from things for a while. But when you run for a long long time, you get into a state where your muscles know what to do, and only know how to do that thing. Changing it up can be challenging.
For example, different people hold their arms at a different angle when they run. Some people run with their arms bent at approximately a ninety degree angle, while others run at a much more acute angle. I've noticed that I run with my arms higher up than my neighbor and Uncle Jonathan do. To do a little bit of stretching out during a run I'll drop my arms to a different position to give them a break for a bit. But a bit is all I can do because it doesn't feel "right" at a different angle.
It's not unlike how we cross our arms across our chests. Most people cross their arms with one arm over the other. Try doing it with the opposite arm on top. It feels strange and even may take some thought in how to maneuver your limbs to get to that position. Which index finger do you have on top when you clasp your hands together? Try that the other way and that's strange as well.
So we have things we do that are "comfortable" positions. But do something physical, say running, for a long long time, and then try and stop. A few weeks back I had to sit on a park bench to get a rock out of my shoe. I immediately said out loud, "oh, that was a bad idea," because my legs didn't want to sit down; they knew how to run and they weren't ready to do anything else yet.
The most humorous thing that's happened in a while was yesterday, after finishing the marathon-length run, when my neighbor and I tried to drink some Gatorade outside before going in. It had been muddy in the park and we didn't want to go inside. I wasn't sure I could get my shoes off standing up, so I decided to sit down on the pavement--only I couldn't. My legs and arms didn't want to move in those directions. The message I was getting from my brain was that not only did my legs not want to move that way, they had no memory of what I needed to do to move from a standing position to a sitting position. I looked fairly silly as I tried to figure out how to sit down.
The both of us were laughing at me trying to do something so simple. The body is pretty amazing though. After cooling down for ten minutes, I was much better--I was tired, I was sore, but I could figure out how to sit down again.
The Big Boy Update: Conversation with the sitter today: "I got to poke my ear. Not with my penis. My finger." I told her daddy must have taught him that one because I sure didn't.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Picking up leaves. My daughter, like all toddlers, is at an age where there are no time constraints. She lives in the now and is never in a hurry. We got to the grocery store this morning and instead of wanting to go into the store, she wanted to go around the parking lot, picking up leaves. When she got enough, I asked her how many she had and she counted each one, dropping it on the ground as she did so.
Fitness Update: Nothing doing. I'm not doing a thing today. Heck, I even watched a movie. It's nice to have reached your goal. It's a good feeling to accomplish something.
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