A runner takes a walk

A rare Monday morning when I woke up at 430am. Rare because the alarm was set for 630am. Mondays are rest days (runner speak) or normal days (regular speak). This kind of inexplicable thing happens maybe a few times a year.

The inner voice said “Hey, you’ve always wanted to find out what it is to be up and about and NOT needing to run.”

In those prior rare occasions, the voice would trigger a smorgasbord of possibilities: Pranayama, Khan Academy learning session, knock off a few blog posts. And the delicious feeling of impending overachievement would gently lull me back to sleep.

But today was different. I didn’t dwell. I bounded out of bed. Paced around the house for a few minutes and a quick decision was made.

I was going to do that quintessential Indian ‘exercise’. Go for a morning walk.

It’s amazing how naturally I eased into a walker’s psyche. It was a cool morning (of course) so I pulled on a jacket. I had to mention the jacket because we Bangalore runners are always single-layered (even in Dec and Jan).

I could see how this walking business is popular with.. err walkers. Mental equanimity without sweating. Gentle dissing aside, the other thing I noticed is that the thoughts seemed to flow much better while walking (probably because obstacle evasion is easier). If you are curious about the biomechanics differences between running and walking, this post should help out.

Anyway, another experiment checked off the list.