Sunday. 'Long run' Day.

How to I continue to justify spending 1.5-2 hrs every Sunday to go for a long run? On top of already 5- 6 hours running during the week?

"Run to the Top" By Arthur Lydiard and Garth Gilmour.

I read this book when I was in university. I was starting to get fit during my summers, to prepare myself for the upcoming hockey season. I friend had this book at home, and brought in round to my flat.

I can remember reading these couple of passages then, and I have referenced them so many times since.

Reading them again today, them seem just as reaffirming.

"Most men (Ok, this book was written in 1962. It was a different time. Lets not dismiss the ideas in this passage just because he ommitted women (and any other names of groups of people that poeple want to be asscociated with).

"Most men and this includes alot of athletes- go through life without knowing what is like to be really physically fit. Their physical reactions, their heart conditions, their powers of recovery are such that they dont get tired in the sense that they cannot drag one foot after another and only think of collapsing into bed." ..

"I dont say there is no physical discomfort in first attaining this fitness" (Arthur is talking about the starting of a running program) “There is. But it is short lived and, once a man (woman, transgender et al) is fit for distance running, it is a condition he won't willingly surrender. I have known men (..) to stop training in the belief that they have gone past it, but the minute they get that slovenly (negligent and careless) feeling that comes with a loss of condition they cant get their road shoes back on fast enough. Fit men develop a pride in themselves that transcends the moderate effort they are required to make to maintain fitness. Many runners now dont run in the hope that they will win races. They run because they want to stay fit in later life and because they enjoy the social atmosphere and freedom of body and spirit experienced in bush, road runs and jogs along the beaches.”

This is why I run. I run for that feeling of freedom of body and spirit. Words don't do well to encapsulate that feeling. But I can can easily justify 6-8 hrs a week to keep that for as long as I can...