in our chest we breathe.

in college, Mary and I would lead the soccer team on “cool-down” runs after Tuesday practices.  it was this 3-mile loop out in the agriculture fields behind the university.  beautiful trails and trees and everything you expect from a college town in the middle of nowhere maine.  trouble was, no matter how tired and worn-out and spent we were following practice (which we were, every single time), the pace would inevitably get faster.  we’d pick it up in such minutia amounts at first that, should you have been traveling in the pack, you might think you were going crazy or that you were extra tired or that you had a heart problem.  and there was no way to slow it down.  Even if you could sputter, “guysslowitdown!” while your lungs smashed the drumbeat of “Wipe Out” against your rib bone, you didn’t.  no one tried to slow the pack.  every run went from laughing to pure silence in minutes, and by the time we were on our way out of the clearing and on the last stretch towards the Big M, we were in full throttle.  i loved/hated it.  we always hung in, we had to. but we always talked about how next time would be different. 

fast-forward eight years and i still have a hard time cooling down after any sort of workout.  I started skipping cool-downs altogether because there is so much that habitually fires off.  it’s like the kick of a rifle against my shoulder.  

i’ve begun adding chill songs to the back end of my shuffle to force me to stick around and it’s sort of working.  this one song keeps getting the repeat button from me (which is mildly hilarious because I strap the shuffle to my sports bra - it’s the most comfortable position - though it looks like i’m mini-high-fiving the chest every time i hit the button).  Great band.  Their songs make me feel like I could cool-down forever.  but I’m just getting started....

Le Loup’s (Fear Not) and "We Are Gods! We Are Wolves!

sidebar:  le loup is a DC-born indie band.  I would love to hear them live.  they look fun.  let’s go.

another sidebar:  i will regale you with more off-season soccer stories in later posts.  they were crazy and i remember my nerves jangled like Caribbean ankle bracelets from 1998 - 2002.  for how much i feared those days, i learned that hearts don’t break.  but i do think they come very close.  

XOKAY