Bad Running

My first run after hitting the thirty-two mark was pleasant. It was one of those runs where you wonder why you're not getting tired and have to throttle the urge to over exert yourself.  I thought to myself it was a good omen.

Flash forward to Wednesday this week and I ambled my two miles like a wounded animal.  It seemed as though every joint and limb protested against any movement beyond a lackadaisical walk. And walk I did - as much as I hate stopping, time and experience have taught me that it's better to keep a marathon runner's mentality than that of a sprinter. Alexander the Great chose his horses first for endurance, not speed.

And even though it's the triumph I'm more inclined to celebrate myself in a blog post entitled "Thirty-two and sprinting" or something shameless like it, it's the second run that was more important.  Bad Running is good: it's those moments when you develop the perseverance for the running that is easy.

I was talking to a friend about The Happiness Project, a blog I ran across and how the author's aim is to be "happy" all the time. I'd gone through some sadness about whether or not I'd ever get to see Berlin and told her of a suggested exercise of writing down a few things one should be happy about to pick up one's mood. It was an idea to which M was a little cold: is it healthy to be "happy" all the time?

The notion stopped me dead in my tracks. Is it healthy to be happy, or to try to be happy, all the time?

Down time makes me appreciate what's good. It's the contrast that lets one understand the pleasure of being happy.  But unlike that feeling of embracing a bad run, my usual reaction to it is to try to bounce back in some way: focusing on work, a phone call, my aggregator, an old essay, or the tube.  Or running.

And even though it seems to me that unhealthy distraction is a bad tactic, it's a bit daunting to think about just letting an "unhappy" or otherwise disconcerting emotion wash over while you directly confront it.

The question still stands as something to be pondered: is it healthy to try to be "happy" all the time?