Respecting recovery weeks
Last week I was in the funkiest of funky moods. I refrained from talking about running as much as I could.
In addition to my mood, I wasn’t feeling all that great either. Combine those two things and I have what felt like a horrible week. Now that I’ve had a couple of days to bounce back, though, I realized that I let my mind and body settle into recovery week.
That’s not really a bad thing; I needed a cut-back week with my mileage and I needed rest. Tuesday’s post about ending my “do something” streak was only a hint at how tired I felt. Add a few nights of going to be earlier, a couple of weekend naps and considerably less running miles – and less intensity – and I’ve come to the conclusion that I was completely lacking respect for the recovery week.
Nothing I did last week was bad, but if I had a little bit of a different attitude about things, I wouldn’t have felt as miserable as I did. Yesterday’s 8.3-mile run — my longest non-long run in a while — and today’s core workout were good, but I also have felt like they took a little more effort than usual because I let myself slip into a low.
I’ve written a lot on here and on Twitter this summer about staying focused – these next few weeks are so important for that. The Baltimore Marathon is just a little more than 5 weeks away – I have my highest mileage weeks ever to go, a couple of 20-milers to knock out and I have to maintain quality runs to hit my goal.
Image: Boaz Yiftach / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Thanks for this post, REALLY, because I'm on the recovery week, and it's always good to read a reminder of why it's so important to rest!
5 weeks. FIVE WEEKS. That is going to fly by quickly.
I think it's funny this is the only response (and then an alligator picture gets 3 immediate responses). The reason why this is the only comment? Most people don't cut back enough on recovery weeks and probably think I'm doing some crazy talk.
great post and right on. its great that you can bounce back in just 1 week. i've have had funks that last months. i've learned to just go with them and come back running stronger.
I've definitely had worse funks. I usually just ride them out, butwith the marathon coming up I couldn't do it this time around. Thisweek has been one of my best weeks so far too. I'll take those lowmoments because I know the next high will feel even better!