Yet Another Way Running Is Like Writing

I wake up in the dark, pet a cat, and think, “It rained yesterday, and it’s dark and cloudy, and it’s probably cool and damp outside. I don’t have to run; I’m not training for anything. Running is not my job.”

I get out of bed, put on a robe, and let the dog out. I go to the bathroom and take my usual allergy pill, then look out the window. It’s not that cold, but it is cloudy and foggy, so yes, it is damp out there. But now I’m moving. I let the dog back inside, and she is JAZZED and ready for a run. So I’ll run.

As I get dressed in shorts and a lightweight wool long-sleeved shirt, I think, “It’s Thursday, which is usually a short run with some speed work. Fartleks. But I don’t have to do them. Maybe today it’s enough to get out there and run the energy out of the dog. Any pace, any distance.”

Phone in pocket, watch on wrist, harness on dog, reflective vest dug out from last spring. We walk to warm up then start our run. I think, “I feel okay, so maybe I’ll do a mile-long tempo run. Whatever I want to do is fine. I’m not training for a race. It’s just fun.”

A half-mile into the run, my watch tells me that, according to its measurements and metrics, my body is up for a workout. My mind agrees. At the mile mark, I switch my watch face so that it shows that time in larger numbers, and we begin our 30-20-10 speed work. That’s 30 seconds at a quick pace, 20 seconds at a fast pace, and a 10-second all-out sprint. Dogs love this workout. I think, “I did seven sets of these last week, and I was going to do eight today, but if I do five, that’s plenty.”

Set five ended up being at our turn-around spot by the local university, and I messed it up. We only got in a 5-second sprint. So we’ll do one more.

Well, if we’ve done six, we can do seven to match last week.

Now we’ve done seven, and doing one more set is only another 60 seconds.

And that is how I completed my full planned speed workout and ran a cool-down mile to get back home. The dog was, again, JAZZED. She’s jazzed about most things, honestly.

This morning’s thought process about running was almost exactly the same experience I often have with any writing project. I don’t want to. I don’t have to. One day off won’t hurt me, and it might actually help to take a break. I’ll just do this one thing in the manuscript, make this one change, jot down this one idea. I see how I can finish this paragraph, this scene. Well now I’m in it, so I might as well keep going. I wrote 700 words yesterday, I can write 800 today. Next thing I know I’ve been at it far longer than I anticipated, and some of the words don’t even suck. It might even have been fun. In any case, the dog will always be JAZZED.

KHG’s latest translations, Memoirs of a French Courtesan Volume 1: Rebellion and Volume 2: Spectacle are available now at her website, Bookshop.org, or anywhere you buy books.