I didn’t run today, and I feel crummy about it. It was just a rainy, crummy day in New England when I woke up. Of course, it wasn’t raining at 5 AM when more than a few of my friends run. That’s a crazy time of day to do anything – even wake up – never mind go out for a run part of it. It wasn’t raining by quitting time, so I thought maybe I’d go for a quick 3-miles. But, it was humid and, DAMN, my watch had de-charged because I forgot to disconnect the bluetooth. So maybe I’ll hit the Planet Fitness Dreadmill. Yeah, that didn’t happen either.
It’s times like this that reinforce why I worry about falling off track. It’s so damn easy to just go for three miles when you planned four, to just not run at all. Inertia does have a tendency to reinforce itself, and once my inertia of moving forward is broken its ridiculously easy to just let resting bodies rest.
I’ve got big plans, got stuff to do that just won’t get done unless I get up off my fat ass and do them. I’ve got 1500 miles to run this year, a marathon, a relay race with my daughter. I’m pretty sure I’m the most aerobically fit I have ever been, and yet my desire to just take a day off outweighs the opportunity to progress toward those goals.
I haven’t taken a day off in more than two weeks and only then because I ran almost 19 miles the day before. I went hard core yesterday: ran to my bootcamp workout where we worked core and legs, and back, then ran another 8-miles. I’m sore today…almost like I ran 18 miles. I went all out yesterday, and what I’ve found over the course of time is that full bore exercise will reap benefits, but will also knock me out. Hard to know what’s better for me: go full bore, get the benefits and risk the inertia, or risk mediocrity.
So, I feel crummy today, but I also feel like to get the gains I needed to push hard yesterday, and rest today. I’m sore everywhere I should be sore, but I’m sore because I worked muscles that aren’t used to being worked out. This is a good thing. Runners World says, rest helps strengthen your body, sharpen your focus, and reinvigorate your spirit so that you actually want to keep training.
Running daily breaks the body down. A break helps refocus, rejuvenate, recharge. I hope so, because right now I just feel crummy.
Tomorrow I rise, ready to take it on again. Inertia only wins if you let it; a body at rest tends to stay at rest. The question is which do you want to win more: inertia…or you? I’ve put too much work in not to get back at it; I’ve put too much work in to let inertia win. Crummy today; victorious tomorrow.
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