HILL REPEATS

Get off of the pavement. Find a trail on a hill with unpredictable terrain. Turn your music off and listen to the trail. Listen to your body. Let it regress and adapt as it remembers when this activity was necessary for survival. How far you go within is more important than the measure of time and distance. Every run should be a mind walk as well, taking you to a different place and returning you as different person. Learn how to access your dormant and primitive instincts. It's nice to lift heavy weights and motor through metcon wods, to experience the blood pump and adrenaline high. The pay off, i.e. gratification, is much higher and quantifiable than with running. However, nothing you do in the gym compares to the vestiges of running. Although useful, they are still only similations of movements found in nature. Running is the one activity that binds us to nature, to our roots, and to other animals. Put your sense of reason on the shelf and reach deep into your passion. Run as though your life depends on it and experience the flood of chemicals that drives us to conquer our hostile environment. Harness the fundamental principles in order to replicate the same response as life demands it.
You should run so that your lungs can barely meet your legs' demands. Push your blood/oxygen resources to their limits. You should feel the blood shunt, precluding flow to your upper body extremities. Your arms should tingle. The feeling should pass to your head as though you are about to lose consciousness but just before doing so you make it to the top. Repeat this process until you get slower and weaker. If you can overcome your body's defenses, do damage to yourself in order to repair and grow stronger. Only a stubborn will and dangerous sense of resolve can overcome the body's natural pursuit of self-preservation.