Slow Day > No Day

I admit it. I’ve been a weather wimp until earlier this month. So when I left to run this morning, in the wake of a spate of glorious weather, it was an unprecedented-this-year seventh day in a row that I had run or mountain-biked.

Accordingly, even though I felt fine, I decided to take it easy. To pretty much jog, a solid minute per mile or so more slowly than usual. “Zone 2,” the techies call it, where you avoid elevating your heart rate beyond a certain point.

Reader: I wondered how it would look on Strava.

Yep. I thought of people looking at my run when I posted it for the online exercise community, seeing my sloth-like pace, and being unimpressed. It was a ridiculous thing to think — I’m not exactly a sprinter in my peak condition. But, you know, vanity. 

Strava is a great tool. And, if I’m being honest, it’s a very uplifting community; it’s not a place where people comment like, “Dang, dude, that was pretty slow.” Even so, self-created social pressure can make a person go farther, or faster, or both, for the sake of appearances. 

Of such thoughts, and the competitive instincts behind them, are injuries made.

And that’s where I was. Then I caught myself, and thought, I’m going to try to act my age and ostensible level of wisdom. I’m going to do what’s best for me, regardless of how it looks on the app. After all, I’m not training for a race right now, and I definitely shouldn’t be trying to impress anybody — including myself.

The general rule is that you should only increase by 10%, in either distance or intensity, per week. I was obviously getting close to that threshold. The numbers weren’t ambiguous: I needed to be careful.

What is my goal, after all? It’s to be an outdoor athlete, all my life. Or as long as I can.

Meaning what?

I don’t know. At least, I don’t know what it means for 70- or 80-year-old (God willing) me.

But I’m sure that even a slow-jog day is way way better than not running at all. It adds to the positive ledger, and keeps the momentum going. It helps in an inertia kind of way, keeping me more likely to keep moving the next day.

So sometimes, just moving is enough. Just like a quick text to someone you care about is better than not making contact at all. Or pulling one weed out of the flower bed is better than…not pulling it.

I completed my slow, easy run. When I uploaded it to Strava, I named it “Slow Day > No Day.” It was my way of taking ownership of it, of claiming the space to be slow, to be intentional, to do the best thing for me — especially for 80-year-old me — at the time.

So go slow. If you have to. But go.