February: Passion

   If you were given a choice, you probably wouldn't give up your house or your children for the privilege of running, though there are days when this surely seems, tempting. Could you give up ice cream? Would you forgo your rent-controlled apartment or the memory of your first kiss - if it meant that you could work out whenever you wanted, anytime you felt the urge to put on your running shoes?

   Olympians and high school track stars don't trouble themselves with these hypothetical trifles. They'd give up practically anything for training because it's the proven window to victory. The rest of us have to juggle conflicting goals, demanding schedules, and our changing desires and abilities. Even so, it's passion that motivates both the Olympian champion and the weekend jogger. Even if our fervor is nothing more than the love for a solitary hour on the open road, its importance is transcendent.

   Passion for running can be treacherous, however. It often distorts judgment. You'll find yourself on the starting line of a race you're not quite prepared to run. You'll push recuperation from the flu by a couple of days, believing that a light workout will clear your head and lungs. You'll add extra hill charges, because you can't resist the exhilaration, the sweet depletion you feel during the recovery phase. Six miles into your customary run, you'll suddenly remember that you were supposed to meet your boss for dinner an hour ago.

   Passion can also betray you in the ways it ebbs over time. Many runners easily rekindle excitement for their city's annual marathon or for a 10K fund-raiser. The workouts leading up to these events teem with memories of past achievements and the tribal fun that comes with competition. But notice how passion sags in the long training periods between events. Likewise, noncompetitive runners still get satisfaction when they glimpse their figures in the mirror years after they began running. There's still a thrill in strength - whether it's felt when passing a younger runner on a wide outside bend or simply in the pleasing stretch of your calf muscles while ascending a flight of stairs. Yet do these moments provide sufficient motivation for a workout when it's 36 degrees and rainy?

   In one way or another, we all struggle to keep our passion for running alive, at the very least by keeping it new: changing the places and distances we run, adding interval training or trail workouts, signing up for competitive events that promise new challenges. We shake it up. These changes to our routines help us become better runners. They reveal new strengths and weaknesses. They develop muscles and skills that otherwise tend to atrophy.

   But novelty alone won't keep passion burning; after all, consistency and persistence are the pathways to improvement. Running is first and foremost the love of a habit, of putting one foot in front of the other. A good training program helps us find new ways to enjoy familiar routines. It promises nothing more than improvement. It knows that passion will take care of itself.