I feel like there was a term for traffic - especially in Atlanta - where traffic gets so bad that morning rush hour blends into afternoon rush hour.

I tried looking it up and I couldn’t really find it - maybe it’s something like ‘traffic creep’ or maybe I just made it up.

But you get the point - traffic can get to the point where it is so bad that it just becomes a forever thing and never eases.

That’s kind of how I think about stretching.

The older I get the more I need to stretch but I worry that my entire day will be spent stretching and I’ll never get around to doing any actual exercise.

Like many young people, years ago I never stretched - or I just went through the motions.

That’s just the easy way to go, and it’s an easy habit to slip back into.

I sometimes still find myself just going through the motions with stretching.

But I can’t mess around with that anymore - I need to be intentional about the stretching work I do…because I see how much it helps.

Every time I target something with my stretches it helps.

After my first marathon I had hip stuff going on, and I started spending every morning doing a few leg and hip moves first thing when I wake up and those hip issues have been held in check.

With the plantar fasciitis, deadlifts have been huge to help stretch out my hamstrings and strengthen that part of my leg and ease the pain in my foot.

It is crazy how everything in the body is connected, and a line can be drawn from every ache and pain to each other, in many cases.

Those hip issues have kind of gone away…but maybe they just relocated down the leg into my foot?

Is that the IT band? I feel silly sometimes talking about this because I know my knowledge limitations here…but I know enough to know there’s some truth to it.

I do worry that my morning hip stretches will turn into morning hip stretches plus ten deadlifts and on and on and turn into a burdensome routine that I’ll start making excuses not to do.

But I also know that if I want to keep doing these activities that I love so much, I need to make sure I’m preparing my body - before, sometimes during, and after I run.