It’s Harder To Hit A Moving Target

One of the best things about going back to my regular job, Modern Philosophers, other than hanging that Mandalorian sign on my office door, has been getting to see old friends again after almost three months.

The other day, I was chatting with one such friend, and she commented on how impressed she was that I kept up my running routine while I was furloughed.

For those of you who aren’t Facebook friends or Twitter followers, I always post a sweaty selfie after my runs so that my pals can see I’m still running.  I really wish I can make those photos scratch and sniff, but thus far, the technology is simply not available.

And that’s the world’s loss, if you ask me…

As I told my friend, I thought it only made sense to keep running during a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people via respiratory issues.  I wanted my heart and lungs to be operating at optimum levels just in case COVID ever caught up with me.

If the President can plug his wild theories about how to deal with the Coronavirus, I can at least believe that my theory has some merit.

And even if I didn’t think that being in great physical shape during a pandemic would better my chances of survival, I still would have kept running.

Running is a great way to pass the time.  And, trust me, I had an abundance of time on my hands when this all started.  It’s not like I was sleeping in all day and going to bed early.  In fact, I wasn’t getting much sleep at all because I was stressed about dying, going bankrupt, starving, losing my house, and never seeing another person face to face again.

I couldn’t count sheep, either, because they refused to stay six feet away…

Being out on the road gave me a routine, ate up a chunk of time, and prevented me from getting lost in some very dark thoughts.

Speaking of getting lost in my thoughts, running is always a great time for me to plot out my current writing project.

During my time away from office life, I dove back into writing my novel.  I was halfway through Chapter 7 when I was sent home.  This morning, I finished Chapter 13.

Every morning, I’d go for a run and plot out my writing for the day.  That was a total win, win situation.  I’d have my work ready for the day, and the run would pass by without my even noticing because I was so lost in my thoughts.

Only my sweat drenched shirt proved that I had actually gone for a run…

Running also got me out of the house.  Even now, three months later, I rarely leave The House on the Hill.  I’m going grocery shopping every three weeks, and if I do go out for a walk during the day, I don’t leave my block.

By going for a run, I got to interact with the world again.  It reminded me that something existed outside of the friendly confines of my home.  Even though I kept a serious distance from anyone I encountered while running, it was still an opportunity to see an actual human.  To that point, my only other such encounters were with the people who came into my life via the television.

And those people only talked at me, refusing to engage me in conversation…

So for all of you who have put fitness and personal wellness on the back burner during this pandemic, I urge you to rethink that philosophy.

There is no better time than the present to get yourself into shape.  How could it possibly hurt to be in peak health when there’s a killer virus out there?

And if that isn’t enough to convince you to get active, remember that it’s harder to hit a moving target.

Stay safe, be strong, mask up, and be kind.  Do your best not to make things worse!

Are you working to get into or stay in shape during the pandemic?