Forrest in the Forest

Running has been the biggest, most enduring constant of my life. Running is so thoroughly embedded in my psyche, so deeply recorded in my muscle memory, that it's come to represent a huge part of my identity. And now this is happening to Forrest too. He starts to get twitchy when he takes a rest day!

He has goals now, having entered for a few events that we are now confident will actually take place this summer. I've always needed goals in order to push myself, to run harder and further out of my comfort zone and I've missed not having any in recent years. Both mind and body have felt a little too broken for such aspiration! However, this last year of being pretty much locked down has changed that. The mind has certainly been healing and the body, to some extent, has followed. 

As Forrest has got fitter, so I've been granted some new goals for myself, namely to enjoy as much running with him as I can, while I still can. It's going to be a relatively small window of opportunity.

It's the most unexpected delight to be able to share this love of running with him right now. I have to taper down for a few days and look after myself before we go out together, as if I'm preparing for a race. His form is good. He looks very efficient in style and well relaxed. I like to think my form is good too, but I definitely don't feel relaxed any more. And it takes me a long time to recover afterwards. But I still love it.