You know, ever since the race on Saturday I’ve been laying off the running Granted: that was less than a week ago. Still, I’ve been attempting to take it easy and recover. Prior to that, my running schedule has been a little bit off as well. I haven’t been getting in all of my runs as required. I mean, the Sunday runs have been manageable, but lately the weekday runs have been killing me. Actually, it’s not so much the runs that have been killing me, but really it’s the act of scrambling up north after work on time to catch up with the rest of the group. There is a lot in terms of planning ahead that needs to be done just to get there on time. Sometimes I have to ask myself whether it’s all worth it. Is it worth it to expend so much energy? Is it worth it to bring myself to points where exhaustion is just steps away? Those are some serious questions I’ve had to ask myself, for sure. Thing is, all it takes is a good run to answer all of those questions. Yes, it’s worth the effort. If I train properly, I won’t hit exhaustion. There’s something about running that boosts endorphins. My God, yes, yes, yes, running is an awesome activity. I really just need to be more fair to myself. If I’m ridiculously tired, I should not put so much pressure on myself for not performing. It’s the body’s way of warning me that I need to take my foot off the gas pedal. There’s no point in driving myself into the ground, right? Anyway, I guess that’s all I needed: I just needed to refocus.
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He so blasé about the whole thing. It’s great. Life is all about journeys, isn’t it? At any one moment we’ve all got several going all at once. I personally undertook a new journey back in January, not knowing where it would lead me. Now, eight months later this chapter is ending, and I’m waiting for the next one to begin. Yep, I’m talking about my improv exploits. Yesterday was my last class in the four foundation level courses at Bad Dog Theatre. From here, the likely thing to do would be to sign up for one of the intermediate classes. That’s pretty much where my mind is headed. God, I would not have imagined that I would have taken to this activity in the way that I have. Ultimately, I found it to be so very liberating and almost magical. When everything just clicks, there’s this gut feeling of mild euphoria. It’s really hard to describe. When I started out, I approached it as just a fun side activity. That still remains true to this day. I think then that the big difference between then and now is that somehow I’ve made improv to be more rewarding on a deeper level than just playing pretend. Does that make sense? Over the four beginner levels, I had two different teachers. My first teacher only had me for the first level. She was keen on getting us to be positive with ourselves and with one another, and to trust our gut instincts. She planted the seed that would eventually grow to what it is today. For the three remaining levels, my second teacher has watched me develop. He has told me that I’ve grown such that I’ve now got a sense of fearlessness that envelops what I do. Maybe it wasn’t my intention, but I’ve somehow developed a very large presence and a commanding personality. It’s a contrast to how I perceive myself in my every day interactions with friends and colleagues, and yet, all of this is true. These are all extensions of my true self. Now, I’m not claiming to be all that great at improv. Oh hell no. There are a lot of people that are miles ahead of where I am. All the same, I am humbly convinced that I possess some great skills. All I need is more training and more experience. This second teacher has helped me to believe in myself. Yes! I can do this! So now where does this leave me? This activity will never be my bread and butter; that’s easy to accept. This is something though that I’d like to keep in my life. I’d like to hone the craft and perhaps occasionally do something on stage. On a selfish level, this would be more for the cathartic effect this thing has. The sheer joy of it is also addictive. In any case, just like how at the beginning of this undertaking I would never have imagined my state of being at the end of the foundation courses, I don’t know how I’m going to be after these next courses. Just like in improv, I’m going to do my best to keep an open mind in terms of the possibilities. +10 points if you get the nerdy joke right away.
I’m sitting on the couch, watching TV with my laptop beside me. There’s a bottle of Mill St. Organic beer sitting on the coffee table in front of me. I can’t help but focus on how my quads are still a bit sore. And why wouldn’t they be sore? I really put in a crazy amount of effort into last night’s race. Overall, I’m quite proud. I was expecting to just go slowly and treat it like another Sunday training run, but somewhere along the way I decided to take things a bit seriously and go for it. This is my race report. More after the jump. Read the rest of this entry » I survived, somehow! I really put a lot of effort into it! I got a snazzy medal! Seriously, I want to spill everything out into this entry, but I’m just so tired. Report will follow tomorrow. Meanwhile, rest…lounging…sleeping. Yeah. And somehow it came to be that Saturday is a race day for me. It’s not the race day–that one comes in a few weeks. No, this race is a 30K race along the eastern lake shore of Toronto during the evening hours. I’m still quite humbled by the fact that I can sign up for such a race an not freak out about it being far too long. As long as I break the race up into smaller chunks for my consumption, and move wisely I should be fine. I think that at this time what I do after the race is more important. I’ve been going about my business all week on a bit of a rest deficit. My body knows it and hasn’t been shy in reminding me all week. Heck, that’s honestly why my blog posts have been skewed by many hours all week. Post race, I just need to sleep, and use Sunday as a day to sleep in. I’m so used to making up early on the weekends that this will be different for me. Anyway, wish me luck. This should be a fun race. … Can we just pretend that didn’t happen? I can list off the reasons why last night’s free improv session was unpretty. I really just want to sweep that one under the rug and chalk it up to a learning experience. I will not be ignored. |
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