Energized by a good long run

One thing I love about running is how the longer a route I run on any given day, the more energized I feel afterwards. This is not my experience with biking, though I imagine it is indeed the case for more experienced or simply more skilled bicyclists than I am. When I bike more than ten miles or so, all I feel when it’s over is relieved to get off the bike and in no rush to climb back on. After a good run, on the other hand, what I most feel like doing is taking a long walk.

Occasionally, I do have the chance for a walk after a run. One day last winter, as I was returning from my run, I passed my mother just heading out for a walk. I’d covered enough mileage, so I stopped running and turned around to walk with her for twenty minutes or so. When she and I were approaching my house on the return, I spotted my son Tim heading out for his run, so I turned around again and jogged his daily mile with him. By the time that workout was done, I was okay about stopping. But for the most part, it almost always feels good to extend the workout.

Not long ago, Tim asked me what the hardest workout I ever did was. I told him about a memorable day when we were in rural Wyoming for a family wedding. I ran five miles alongside a quiet highway. The run itself was notable because the landscape was so vast that this was the only running route I’ve ever tackled on which I could see a tree as I started running that I estimated was about two and a half miles away, and sure enough, twenty-five minutes later, I reached that same tree and turned around.

It was a long run in the hot sun, and I would have been happy to relax when that one was over, but when I arrived back at the motel where almost all of the wedding guests were staying, I found that a contingency was just heading out for a hike in a nearby wilderness area. I could have used a rest, but I didn’t want to miss out on the hike, so I grabbed a sweatshirt and jumped into the car for the short drive to the trailhead. The hike itself wasn’t so hard – the trail ran alongside a creek and involved very little climb – but I did it with an 11-month-old Tim strapped to my back in a backpack. And not only that but halfway through the two-hour hike he fell asleep leaning straight back, making him seem twice as heavy as when he was sitting upright.

It was a memorable hike both for the scenery and for the physical duress. Oh, and also because Tim was wearing tiny canvas Red Sox logo sneakers and one of them fell off his little foot somewhere on that trail in Wyoming, a fact I didn’t notice until we arrived back at the car. I like to think that somewhere in the foothills of Sunlight Basin, a grizzly cub is playing with a size 12-month Red Sox sneaker.

Most of the time, though, I can’t follow a run with a hike or even a walk; I have to get on to the next activity: deskwork or errands or cooking. But that’s okay; it’s enough just to have that feeling, that wonderful post-run sense of “I could walk for miles now.” It makes me feel light and agile even though I am neither. It’s why I like running so much.

Last Saturday, I ran on the Minuteman Bikeway. When my five miles were over, I had that feeling again, that I could turn around and do the same thing at a walking pace. But I needed to go grocery shopping, so instead, I drank some water and climbed into the car. Next to me, a group of bicyclists was just finishing up their workout. They probably felt just as good as I did, but what I noticed instead was all the lifting and maneuvering they were doing to load their bikes onto racks. Running feels simple to me: low-maintenance, light, easy. No heavy lifting when it’s over. No lifting at all when it’s over. Just me, done with my workout and more energized than when I began.