The Enemy

知人知敌，百战百胜

I must have mentioned before how much the mere mention of a cliche conjures that sticky cloying feeling that is oh so unpleasant. But yet I love them because they are so true.

So here's another one, this time about knowing your enemy in order to win every battle, and I am my biggest enemy.

Even as my body pounds the treadmill, with each step, the resistance comes from nothing but itself. The horrendous burning from the lactic acid, the dehydration that makes the whole nasal cavity feel like a portion of the Sahara, are just some of the obstacles that I give myself, from myself, to fight with myself.

Reading books on running has helped me put this cliche into perspective. I have to know my body, in order to run effectively. And to know my body requires that I listen to it. As much as I struggle with inertia on those days when I just want to sit down in front of some electronic device and subconsciously build hoardes of cellulite, it becomes equally difficult to stop running once the momentum has kicked in and the adrenaline is coarsing through my veins.

And that's how injuries surface. I have been blessed to be free from joint injuries or muscle tears (so far), and although this could be simply because I have yet to reach the point of a competent runner, I take comfort in the fact that maybe, it is also because I have been listening to my body.

I can accept, rather easily, that rest is as crucial as working hard, and hence try as much as possible to rest when I need to. Of course the ugly past rears here, where, being the obese and unhealthy tween, I often tried to make up for my lack of physical activity with marathons on the desk. Needless to say, falling asleep at the desk was an everyday affair, and the stern mockings from my family members who caught me in the act still resonates even today. Having been conditioned in an environment where sleeping was seen as a sign of weakness rendered those moments even more humiliating, which is shy I never returned the favour then, and hardly ever do so now (if it happens).

Now I am glad that as I run, I listen to my favourite tunes, and also to my body.