Caves
There is a spiritual saying: "keep your mind in hell and despair not" (Elder Silouan). It is one of those sayings that becomes deeper over time - the kind that Samurai/zen masters note: study this carefully. Always keep a grain of sand in the day. For pearls. I realized after my last post that I do the same even in my training, it is just that I have taken a zone of proximal development to my pain cave. When I began running after a decade-long break, I craved distance and would only get out to run far even though I would end up pretty depleted and in pain for a long time, both after the run and in the months after I began to run again - it is interesting how this did not deter me. So, my first step was to keep at it until my recovery improved. My new rule is that unless I am running particularly far, I must have no pain or exhaustion after runs. This also helps me note where stress is creeping in, to be ready to dial things back. Once I found I was recovering well from t