In honor of the holiday, I worked on the hardest skill for a distance runner.
Today, I rested.
In my first day without running since the marathon, I felt like I was cheating myself out of a holiday. Everyone in my Twitter feed and on Facebook keeps talking about National Running Day as though it is something to be followed and observed carefully. And what was on my schedule? Nothing. Nothing at all.
Believe it or not, I really thought about skipping the rest day to get some miles in that I could report on any one of the hundreds of social media outlets asking for mileage totals. Then I realized that it would be insane. I needed a day off my feet to let my poor, poor muscles recover. They've had a long week.
There were a lot of other options for celebrating the day, but I took advantage of none of them. Luke's Locker downtown was doing a pub run this evening, but it didn't seem like a great plan to me to run from bar to bar in 97 degree sun. They were giving discounts on their gear, and I really need at least one new pair of shoes, but I couldn't even afford the sale prices. At least not this week. For much the same reason, I did not take part in Rock 'n' Roll Marathon registration day, offering a $20 discount on race registration today. They're still not cheap.
Overall, the one thing that I did today that actually identifies me as a runner is that I was smart enough not to do anything. And yes, that's a skill, too. You have to learn to listen to your body when your ego says that you can push more. My heel hurts a little, and it could really use a break, so I gave it one. I'll do enough miles this year; I don't have to do the risky ones.
My real question now is what to do tomorrow. My legs feel ready to do some speed work, but I worry that it might be coming back a little too soon. Eh.
We'll see how I feel when the alarm goes off.
No comments:
Post a Comment