eureka

I have come to the conclusion that my relative lack of motivation and my large feelings of restlessness stem from the fact that I am not receiving adequate physical activity to satisfy my body's needs. I interpret my body's physiological rebellion as a sign that I need to start running again every day. I've been letting my ankle heal this past week - it's probably at 95% right now - and trying to convince myself that playing intramural volleyball is the same thing as doing 20 minutes of straight running, but I find that's not the case. Volleyball is too much explosive movement and not enough stamina, so it's clear to see that I'm not getting nearly as much cardiovascular workout as I need to keep me going. I feel the way Henry felt when he lost his legs and couldn't run anymore...just way less depressing and on a much lesser magnitude.

I tried something new today that I discussed with Ellis a long time ago. If you don't know, one of my favourite players is Richard Hamilton off the Detroit Pistons:



Rip models his game after the great Reggie Miller, a controversial yet fantastic shooter. If you check out the video above, Rip's game is running all the time when he doesn't have the ball, curling off of screens, flaring around them, then cutting deep or backdoor for the ball and back outside if he can't create a shot opportunity. That being said, one of the great requirements to being able to play the running guard is that you have to be able to run for long periods of time without tiring.

I created a running pattern which is loosely based off of wind sprints as Ellis describes. I basically run for ~5 minutes till all my joints are loosened up and my muscles are warm, then I start. I run the length of two lampposts at regular speed, then once I hit the end of the second length I sprint as fast as I can toward the next lamppost. I then cut my pace back for another two lampposts, then repeat the sprinting. I do this ~10 times throughout my run. I'm looking to increase the length of the burst runs, but I mean I'll take it one step at a time (literally). In this manner I model my runs after Richard Hamilton's game in that I am always moving, but only bursting to get open at certain opportune moments. It's grueling when you know a sprint is coming up, but I have to say that overall this dull ache I have in my legs right now feels damn good.