Running On Empty

I might have posted this commercial previously on here, but I just love it to death. There really is something so great about getting out and exercising when it's the last thing you want to do. It doesn't hurt that I happen to love the AC/DC song that accompanies it. What is it about exercise and being active in general that gets me so revved up? I guess it's all the endorphins that are doing their jobs. I always had heard about the effects that they have, but I bothered actually looking it up and found this information from Wikipedia both pretty explicit and pretty interesting:

Endorphins are endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during strenuous exercise, excitement, and orgasm; and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a sense of well-being. Endorphins work as "natural pain killers", whose effects may be enhanced by other medications.

Sometimes, though, it's just so damn hard to get myself going. I get home after a full day of work, and inevitably I want to just decompress, as one of my old girlfriends used to call it. Maybe I had a long day at work, or I just slept poorly the previous night, but the hardest part is making the movements toward actually getting myself out the door and moving.

I think I like running just for its simplicity. It really is just such a raw kind of exercise. All it takes is a pair of shoes and you're off and running, so to speak. I think I've finally started to cross over into a world that I never thought I would have previously - where I would actually appreciate just the experience of running for its own sake, and not so much that it had to be directed at helping me play other sports better. I love that every experience is so singular. I can run the same route 100 different times, but the feel of it is always so unique, whether it just has to do with the thoughts that I'm having during that particular run, how much energy I end up having, or the different parts that might be aching for that particular day.

When I first started to get back into shape a couple of years ago, running ended up being one of my points of emphasis in my workouts because it is a challenge to make yourself run for a predetermined interval in spite of however hard it might be. As I first started doing it, I would set out running to reach a certain distance in a specific amount of time, and at some points I seriously would start to black out. And even today when I ran, I'm in pretty good shape as it is, but I still had lots of different body parts that felt like they were being gnawed upon. My left lower back wasn't feeling strong, my upper right shin felt like it was separating muscle from bone, but it is such a great feeling to get from start to finish and not let anything get in my way.

There is a pretty cool website - Walk, Jog, Run - where you can go and put in your home address and plan different routes to walk, jog, or run. Obviously. One thing that I really want to do this summer is bike down to the beach. When we were in junior high, we rollerbladed down several times, and then we'd take the bus back. The bus trip was always longer than doing the rollerblading. I know you're thinking that only losers rollerblade, but you're totally wrong. The posse used to rollerblade, and we did it everyday for a year during 8th grade. I'm so not joking. It was the best year of my life. Anyway, I think that would be really fun and I just mapped it out - it's only 15 miles from my house down to 46th street in Newport Beach. I think I would even like to run that one day. I can't believe I just said that. Can you believe that? 16 year old me would be laughing hysterically at that thought. Anyway, I think Greg would be down with that. Anybody else?