Today I decided to go for a run for the first time in 3 weeks and start my slow journey back to getting fit again. I also like to keep track of my exercise so to do this I use Strava. If you are not familiar with Strava, it’s an app that allows you to record various exercises by using GPS to track your route, your time and speed. It also keeps a record of your achievements, gives you awards and allows you to see how you compare to other people that have completed the same section that you have. As you can imagine, if you are competitive it’s a great way to challenge yourself and also compete with other people. Normally when I run, I am doing just that, running around the same route, as quickly as I can, without stopping, looking straight ahead and hoping that I will beat the time I did before. This time though, I decided that as it was such a beautiful morning and as I wanted to take it slow, I would take pictures along my route through Epping Forest and try to capture the beauty of my local area. The app also has a feature which allows you to auto-pause, so if you need to stop to cross the road, when you stop, a voice says “Pausing” in your ear and it pauses recording. Then when you are ready to run again, you hear a voice that says “Resuming” and it starts recording again. These can be quite annoying when you want to try and beat a time but today as I took in the beauty of the forest, stopping to take pictures, I made quite an interesting discovery. It doesn’t matter how many times you stop and pause, it still records your moving time so when you finish your run, you see on the final record, your distance and average pace. So I may not have beaten any records, and it may have taken me twice as long but ultimately it still made me feel like I had achieved something but with the added benefits of “Pausing” to take in the beauty of the Forest and “Resuming” when I was ready to run again. When I run, I also normally just look straight ahead, music blaring in my ears, focusing on completing the run as quickly as I can. However, today, when I was “Pausing” to take pictures and take in the forest, I also “Looked Back”. When you look back, you see a different scene and picture than when you just look forward. Not only do see exactly where you came from, it can be equally as beautiful as the way forward. I also took my headphones out and for the first time appreciated the natural music of the birds singing their beautiful morning song. So I guess the moral of my story is that even if you end up “Pausing” and ”Looking Back” before “Resuming”, the end accomplishments and goals are still the same but you get to appreciate so much more about the journey.
Pictures of Epping Forest and Loughton
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