Off the blocks

New Year’s Resolutions: Intentionality

A number of yoga teachers — perhaps most — ask you to “set your intentions for the class” just as you are beginning. Up till just the other day, I thought this was silly. ‘My intention is to do yoga, that’s why I’m here. Let’s get going.’

After taking several weeks off, a rarity for me, I’ve begun to run again in preparation for several indoor triathlons that begin at the end of January. My general plan is to run three days a week, one mid-speed, one fast with shorter intervals and the third, a long slow run. I would swim the other days.

I was not particularly enthused about doing this appointed, longer run, though as this is the beginning of the season I would only be going for 40 minutes. As I began, when I was I done with delaying warm-ups, I began thinking of intentionality. Suppose I could set a context for this run and consciously keep it in mind both leading up to and throughout the run? I began, as I was running, enumerating:

• the long run creates endurance
• it trains you to mentally deal with longer time intervals
• it burns fat (even better than fast running, so they say)
• allow for blog ideas and blog development
• because you are moving slower you can better focus on form
• when race day comes your confidence will be higher because you’ve done the run.

So, now I’m wondering, can I apply this to other things that I do? That is one of my New Year’s Resolutions — to find out!