Yesterday was one of those days when I wanted to do anything but run. After the Uplift workout on Tuesday night my legs were pretty sore, I had evening plans that I didn’t want to rush to make, I have a lot on my mind, and work has been pretty crazy this week.

But, knowing that the rest of my work running group was waiting for me helped motivate me to tie on my shoes and get out the door. I knew that once we started running I’d be happier and in a better mood.

Unfortunately, around five minutes in I still wasn’t in a great mood. I was just bored with our routine in general. Since I had my Garmin I suddenly realized that we didn’t have to stick to our normal path. We could run ANYWHERE in Central Park. This thought suddenly provided me with the greatest sense of excitement and freedom. I could show the group new areas in Central Park they’ve never experienced.

After our normal mile route to the Central Park entrance we diverged from habit. For the next hour we did nothing like normal.

 

• The group wanted to challenge themselves so they stuck with me for the entire 7 miles instead of only doing 4-5 miles like normal.
• We were only on the main Central Park loop for maybe 2 miles total.
• We ran against traffic on the reservoir for a new perspective.
• We spent a mile on the Bridle Path.
• We talked about growing up as a NYC child having Central Park as your playground while running around the softball fields, The Lake and Turtle Pond.

This 70 minute run, while painful at times on tired legs, was like a breath of fresh air. Sometimes all you need to do is shake it up a bit and turn down a new path in order to bring the fun back to something that has quickly become habit.