Posts Tagged ‘rest’

It’s been a while since I’ve had intentional down time. With the exception of a couple of weeks this year when I was sick and my knee injury, things have been on fast forward for a while.

So I’m taking a bit of a break — both physical and mental. I’m not setting a timetable or any rules — I’m doing less blogging and tweeting and spending less time on Daily Mile. I’ve stayed fairly quiet for a few days already and will probably stay that way for a little while. I’m not completely going away … just backing off the peddle a little bit. It’s time to regroup and get to 2011 in a good state of mind.

Back in June, I got completely worn down after a trip to Ohio. To this day, I blame many things for that, including myself for not going to the doctor a second time more quickly. This past weekend, my son was obviously feeling bad, taking earlier-than-usual naps and saying “boo-boo” and pointing to his throat. Then Monday, it was my turn to have a “boo-boo.”

Playing it safe, my son went to the doctor yesterday even though he seemed to be doing better. The doctor said there’s a 5-7 day virus going around and that days 2-3 are the worst and he was probably better. So, he is pretty much back to normal today. Yesterday, though, must have been the big low for me. I slept a couple of hours in the morning, another half hour in the evening and went to bed around 9 p.m. last night. I really didn’t want to get up for work today, but there was some things I really needed to do, so I slogged my way into the office.

By the end of the day, I didn’t feel nearly as bad and even now I feel considerably better than 24 hours ago. I’m not 100 percent yet, but it’s been a much better experience back in June when everything seemed like such a mystery. It’s just frustrating that a week after running 30-plus miles for the first time in a very long time that this hits.

Today marks three days in a row of not running — the first three-day break since early May. While I may feel a bit down, I can feel that my legs are refreshed and ready for another 30-mile week; I just have to rearrange Monday to another day. Fortunately, Tuesday is a usual off day anyway.

This puts me behind on the 100 push-ups program just a bit. There’s part of me that wants to get started on week 4 tonight, but I just want to get completely healed up. I may do a test and repeat week 3 again … I’m not really sure right now.

Getting sick is a nice reminder that my health is my No. 1 priority. A few off days, or even a bad week, isn’t going to make or break anything. I’m coming up on some key weeks with my marathon training and I need to make sure I’m 100 percent healthy to do this.

In the past couple of weeks, I intentionally cut back on my mileage. While I needed the break, my headed started spinning — what about that 1,000 mile goal for this year? Am I still on pace? What if I get behind?

This is really the first year that I’ve had a huge overarching goal for the entire 12 months. And so far, I’ve been doing well. I’ve stayed just above the 1,000-mile pace since February ended, giving myself some “bonus” miles, such as going 17 miles over the average needed for a month in April. I also still have marathon training to go for more than a third of the year … but I can’t help but worry.

So yesterday, for the first time in a few weeks, I looked at the numbers and I can take a deep breath — I’m at 393.2 miles for the year, on pace for 1,047, using the daily average through May 17. I know that resting is OK and taking a few days off will not stop me from hitting that big goal, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to worry about it.

I’m a huge proponent of rest — I’m a firm believer that rest is just as important as running. After running every day in the month of April, I knew I needed some downtime. After a great run last Wednesday on the trails, I could just feel it … that feeling that my legs needed a running break.

So I took four days off from running, which is the longest break since not running the first three days of the year. Last week was my first single-digit week of the year, coming in at just under 10 miles. It was only the fifth week under 20 miles for a week all year. Coming off last year in which I ran just a little more than 600 miles, I had to take a break so I wouldn’t get that burned out feeling.

When I went out for a run yesterday, I had a great feeling of my legs being rested. Four days off from running was just as good of a decision as pushing myself by running 30 straight days in April.

It’s been a quiet week for me with running, all by plan. Monday was a travel day back from Ohio; Tuesday was a day off from work to catch up on things around the house, which included some nice cross training with an hour or so worth of yard work; I ran 4 miles yesterday; and today was a travel day with a flight to Birmingham. I’ll be in Alabama through Sunday. I’ll try to get in a run or two while I’m here, but I’m not putting pressure on myself to do so.

My run last night felt great — a couple of days of rest did me some good. After three straight weeks of good runs, I am glad to ease back this week. Next week will likely be fairly intense before a little bit of tapering the week after that. This type of training has worked well for me before, so I think I’ll peak at the right time for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half, although I still have no speed in me at all.

After more than 16 hours in the car in a four-day period and then dealing with airports today, I’m so glad I don’t have to travel that often. It would be really tough to be a traveling runner - for anyone who has to do that, I have a new respect for you. Sure I had a good run in Ohio and maybe I’ll explore Birmingham by foot, but I’m exhausted tonight.

Low 90s in April? Sure enough. Add that to the crazy-high pollen levels in Richmond and you’ve got yourself a few more excuses for April being a bad month. And that, to some degree, is what this month has become - a bunch of excuses. But I will not apologize for my allergies putting a dent in things and making me unnecessarily paranoid that I may instead be coming down with N1H1 (aka the swine flu). This month is simply a rest month, thankfully. Had I continued with my original plans, I would have participated in the duathlon this past weekend with temperatures in the low 90s. With no transition to that temperature, I would have hated it out there.

So anyway, yes, April is continuing to drag along when it comes to working out. Last week was actually pretty good though - I ran 12 miles, biked 8 and got in a couple of elliptical machine workouts. While I have lost some of my endurance gained in the first few months of the year, I’m in a much better place this year than last year heading into the spring and summer training months. Let’s hope this time I don’t fall down any stairs …

I’m not quite sure how I fell off the blogging world for a week — it’s a rarity for me. I think in two years of blogging, I’ve only gone more than a week without posting only two or three times. In fact, unless something drastically turns around, this month will end a 20-month streak of double-digit posts in a month’s time.

So what’s up? Well, my lack of blogging has been due to busier times at work — after busy days the last thing I have felt like doing is putting energy into typing on a computer at home; my workouts have been fairly lackluster and boring; and I was out of town for four days this past weekend.

All in all, though, this has been a good rest month for me. After the 10k, I was hyped up on running. I still am, but I had to take a long listen to my body and have a conversation with myself — I was very, very worn out after two races two weekends in a row. A couple of short runs the week after hurt — it wasn’t the injury type of hurt, fortunately. My legs were tired, and I was mentally worn out from having put that effort in. With some outright shitty weather this month, plus the other variables I have already mentioned, it’s been a good time to just take a step away from here for a little while.

My goal of 60 running miles certainly won’t happen this month, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s OK. I’ll still have a much better April than last year when I was hurt and ran just a little more than 20 miles. In the first half of the month, I’ve ran just 16.6 miles, biked 7 miles and 3.5 on the elliptical. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. The important thing I still feel good.

I think a break is just what I needed. I’ll close out this month with a better effort than the first half of the month, but I probably won’t get too serious about things again until May. As far as blogging is concerned, it’ll happen when I feel like it!

After running two races two weekends in a row, there’s no question that I was extremely tired this week. On Tuesday, when I thought I felt fine, I went out for a short run with my dog and suddenly had that post-race soreness hit me like a ton of bricks. So all week I’ve been taking it easy, getting in some walking and very short running with my dog. I’ve also managed to fall asleep on my couch earlier a couple of nights as well. After two of my most satisfying races in five years of running, I certainly had one of my best rest weeks ever. It’s time to get back to the grind this week!

So, what’s next?

… Stay tuned.

At the end of the month, I usually do some sort of month recap. I’ve missed some months along the way — like last month, which ended with a race and I pretty much forgot about it — but I usually like to take a look back on what has happened both positively and negatively.

If you have followed my blog, you already know that September was pretty much an off month for me. I did it for various reasons, but the No. 1 reason was to give myself a break by choice. Sure I’ve had some breaks in the past year, but they were mainly due to injury. I wanted a break by choice. It wasn’t a complete break from running — it was a break from doing things because of a race. My random runs were actually pretty good. I happily increased my dog’s miles along the way as well. I also got back on the bike after a couple of months off it. I didn’t get many miles, but it was enough to feel comfortable again on two wheels. The totals: 24.8 running miles (compared to more than 100 miles in August); 19.9 biking miles; and more than 20 walking miles. Surprisingly, when it comes to running, it wasn’t my lowest total for the year — that came in April when I was getting over an injury.

So now that September is over, I can finally answer the question of what’s next. I have decided to run the Ntelos 8k in Richmond in November. It’s the same day of the Richmond Marathon and the new Richmond Half Marathon. Simply put, it’s a huge running day in Richmond. While it’s not a “big” race when it comes to mileage, it’s a “big” race with more than 2,000 people taking part in the 8k. That distance is what I’m comfortable with right now. It’ll be nice over the next six weeks to have a few runs a week in the 3-4 mile range and “long” runs in the 5-6 mile range. It’s a welcome break from what I’ve been used to for almost two years. I’ll detail my goals sometime in the next few weeks.

I may do a 5k along the way, but honestly I just want to spend the next couple of weeks getting into a normal routine. My September normal is over and it’s time to get refocused.

17 days of rain totaling more than 8 inches. That sums up Richmond in April. It was very unmotivating at times … every weekend featured rain, so even if I really wanted to go out and run or bike, the weather wasn’t cooperating.

So, let me try and recap this month. First the good. The good really has to be the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k early in the month. While my time wasn’t what I would normally want, I was pleased with it and running for a great cause. I also walked more than 30 miles this month. The only other good to come out of this month was lifting weights six times during the month, all of those sessions coming after April 14.

Now to the bad and the ugly - I’ll let you figure out what’s “bad” and what’s “ugly.” Since I’ve basically been getting over an injury, I logged just a little more than 30 miles running. Keep in mind 6.2 miles of that was in one day. My longest run besides the race was only 3 miles. I only biked about 10 miles. When I had the time to bike - mostly on the weekends - it seemed like it was raining.

So, all in all, April has been awful. I’ll see in a couple of weeks if it’s a good thing that I rested up. I’m eager to get back to consistency with running and with everything else and May will be a good test. I had hoped April would be that month, but with a hurt foot and miserable spring weather, it was a little tough to think positively. Now it’s time to move on to bigger and better things …