Snake Totem Crossed Our Path Again...
'I really don't like this hill' Anadi said about half way up our long climb before we even get to the mountain paths...
'It doesn't mind, it's conscious' I said... Anadi seemed uninterested as to whether the hill minded not being liked or not....
We turned right onto the wider path, that is still 'up' but less steep, and I suggested, 'the secret is to run it very slowly...' 'The secret is to stay in bed...' Anadi responded....
I had a plan for the morning... There is a place on the loop we had chosen, where two hills join two paths together....
My plan was that we would run down one, up the steep hill the other side, turn and run down again and up the less steep one we had run down originally... And repeat this until we had completed three steeper shorter and two longer less intense hills...
Mid way through I said 'these hills are good to train on aren't they?' 'No' Anadi replied, and decided to stay at the top and leave me to do the extra two hills alone....
It doesn't take much at altitude, even only 1600m, to elevate my heart, so just running up them without much extra drive took my heart to over 160...
Anadi did confirm as we ran back that he wants to improve on hills.
He certainly has the opportunity, while we are staying here...!
I have never minded running up hills, it's the down where I have been more circumspect, although today I felt much more boundy and leapy and confident on the descents....
Anadi and I have discovered a new technique to get into my tight adductor, the one that can pull on my knee... I lie down on my side with my leg positioned so that Anadi can walk on it!
It is proving a miraculous treatment....
Danny my sports massage therapist in London suggested I needed to get right into the top of this muscle and this method is a good way to do it!
After running we ate a delicious breakfast in a little cafe, our waiter told us the water he brought us was from the mountains... It tasted like a special potion. Anadi chose a Spanish Omelette and I ate scrambled eggs with asparagus mushrooms and ham, and we sat with the chatter around us of people meeting over cafe con leche, food and friendship...
It is an unusual thing for me to be relying on 'medication' to feel okay.... I am eating the local honey by the spoonful - and drinking the honey rum too! But without my little white pills (anti histamine) I decline noticeably...
I wake up each morning not feeling well at all, but within fifteen minutes of the magic pill my eyes and my head clear and I am ready to run...
I have the most energy when I am running...
I feel my best when I am running...
At the end of the day I decline again, but once again after taking the magic pill I perk up...!
This state of reduced energy is quite relaxing though, I have no resistance to letting go of anything I don't need. It feels a cleansing process... A readying for the new, a pause to accommodate all the changes and transitions Anadi and I have made...
And yesterday evening we were gifted once again with snake totem crossing our path, the energy of transformation and healing...
We were walking down some steps when Anadi stopped suddenly, snake was lying two steps below... It was alarmed by our presence and slithered off very fast... But it had travelled into an area with walls on three sides and us near the gap...
We peeped round the corner to see it hiding curled in the corner... Seeing, or sensing us, it set off again, appearing very afraid... Beautiful snake; it tried to go up each wall and then found a pipe, up which it disappeared, all except the tip of its tail...
This is what the animal totem information said...
'The snake as a spirit animal can be to provide guidance about life changes and transitions, whether they are happening at the physical, emotional or spiritual level.'
As the days go by I am imagining I will adjust to the pollen in this beautiful place.
'Its not surprising we didn't live much beyond thirty or forty years in the past is it?' Anadi commented, witnessing my miraculous transformation each time I take 'the pill'!
I am in awe of the human journey, of our creativity, our investigative orientation, our movement always towards progression; everything changing, never still; whilst knowing that the way to truly enjoy all that this incredible universe has to offer is to be still inside.