Ritual

For over 20 years I’d used the run/walk running method I learned from a book by Jeff Galloway. It’d kept me injury-free (the one time I got a bad case of plantar fasciitis was when I stopped run/walking), and has been something I’ve preached to anyone and everyone who would listen.

Then six months ago I stopped. Because six months ago I got myself a Garmin Forerunner 255 (FR255).

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The FR255 is a lovely watch, tracking all sorts of stats about my running, fitness, and sleep.

It also comes with a “Daily Suggested Workout” (DSW), which I resisted for a while. But because the watch kept bugging me every morning about the DSW, I thought I’d give it a chance.

I started doing the workouts, and not quite knowing how to incorporate run/walk into the heart rate (HR) zones, I stopped run/walking. To my surprise, I took to it quite well, and it’s helped me improve my VO2 max to a level I’d not seen in years.

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But two weeks ago, just as I was about to start a DSW, I told myself, No, and set my watch to execute my favoured 2-minute run, 30-second walk run/walk rhythm (the watch alerts me each interval).

I have little doubt my “No” came from stressors in my life, which though I didn’t quite feel it consciously, were showing up as a steady decline in my heart rate variability (HRV).

It felt like a conversation with an old friend. Or a long-forgotten ritual that returned me to a calmer time in my life.

I actually felt happy again.