It’s been 9 weeks since I injured my knee attempting the Pembs 100 mile ultra marathon.
Every couple of weeks, I head out for an early morning trot to test it. Each time, about a mile in, the discomfort flares up and I have to stop. It’s a pain in the arse.
The good news is I’ve had it diagnosed as patellar tendonosis, and I’ve got a daily exercise to help get me back to full fitness. The not so good news is I’ve got another month or so of no running.
So I’ve had to find other ways to be busy and keep my mind in check.
Sitting still
Yep, the total opposite of running. But I find this much, much harder.
I’ve practised mindfulness on and off for 15 years. Sometimes, I can mange a decent stint. Other times, a single minute is torture. I just want to be busy doing stuff.
Being crocked has forced me to swap early-morning running for early-morning mindfulness. A few weeks ago I was managing 5 minutes. Now, I’m up to 20.
My mind is still chaos. But at least I’m observing the chaos. Which is the point.
Reading
I’ve always been a big reader. Now, I’m reading morning and night.
In the morning, I’m reading a verse from the Tao. Now, bear with me on this. Yes, I try to meditate (see above) but I’m not a sandal wearing, rice milk sipping crusty. And I don’t own a hemp t-shirt.
But it blows my mind. Simple/profound lines that make me stop and think about the big stuff, and how I could be living my life.
Because of the nature of my work, I’m also gobbling up books about the world we live in. Here’s two belters I’ve read recently:
Pod save me
I’m obsessed with podcasts.
So much so, I’m currently developing one with 3 friends.
It’s called Seismic, and it’s about sustainability. Or to be more specific, it’s about celebrating the amazing things people (and businesses) are doing to make the world a better place. Our view is: together, small actions create seismic change.
We recently started interviewing some fantastic people and hope to launch in late July / early August. You can follow us on twitter @seismicwales
Curse and a blessing
I miss running. And hope it’s not too long ’till I’m back out pounding the trails. But it’s been nice to have a break and focus on other things.
When my knee’s better, my challenge will be deciding what has to make way for the running.
Hmmm…one challenge at a time.
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