Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Call it?

This is one of the hardest things I struggle with. When is taking a day off the right thing to do, and when is it detrimental to training? Don't get me wrong - I don't run seven days a week, I give myself a day off every week. But this week, I was planning on taking Friday off.

I got home from work intending to change and head out for a run. But the combination of the cold, rainy day and this persistent cough had me thinking twice. I know in my heart there is nothing wrong with trading one day off for another. But my head won't let me settle with that decision. I worry that if I take today off, I'll spiral into a string of missed days. That because I don't feel up to running today, I might not want to run tomorrow. I walked into my room to change twice before deciding that a run was a pretty bad idea on a night like tonight. I worry that because I chose to stay in instead of settling for the treadmill, I might lose 'it,' whatever 'it' is that has been compelling me to run so consistently over the past 10 weeks.

And it's not even like I took a full day off. Despite a rough night of sleep, I made it to boot camp this morning. Hopefully this is just a lack of sleep catching up to me. I'm going to turn in early tonight and hit the treadmill first thing tomorrow morning.

I think some of the worry I was having about taking today off was being unsure of when I could get my run in tomorrow. But I feel better already having a plan. But what to do when life gets in the way? I know running keeps me sane, but sometimes I feel like I'm walking a fine line between where running keeps me sane and makes me insane. It's silly to run myself sick in the name of not missing a day, 'streaking' on my log sheet to impress a coach. Because in the long run (pun intended) I'd rather take a day off and be able to run for the few weeks than force myself out on another cold wet run and wind up sicker.


~Lyssa
PS - Is spring ever coming for real???

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