Originally when I looked at my running schedule for last week, I really thought it would be a nice break. Aside from Tuesday and Thursday all of the workouts were “easy.” I thought that would give my body a chance to recover.

Saturday morning everything seemed to change. I woke up on Friday feeling a little “out of whack.” My body felt weak and I just knew that I wasn’t my normal self. I figured I was tried from Thursday, so since it as my rest day I figured I would be back to normal Saturday morning.

Wrong.

Saturday’s run was the worst run I have probably  had in years. I went out hoping to do 12 and cut it at 10. I knew there was no reason to push it any further. I kept telling myself “it’s okay you can try again tomorrow.”

Sunday came and I was feeling a little better but nothing like I normally do. Something was still off. I fought with myself. I consider everything from not running at all to pushing through and forcing myself to do 10. In the end I opted to just go run and see how I felt.

I left my music at home so that I could listen to my breathing and make sure that I was really going easy. I knew that the moment I felt bad I would stop.

7 Miles

I ended up doing a total of 7 miles. I was happy with 7 miles. It wasn’t the 10 originally planned, but 7 was solid and I felt much better than Saturday. My legs felt great, but my body still had that weak and groggy feeling. I knew that with a 57 mile week coming up, cutting another run short was not going to hurt me. 3 miles is not going to make or break me!

I would be lying if I didn’t say that cutting runs short frustrates me. However, I have learned through some very hard lessons that even though I don’t like doing it, it is what I need!

I could have easily pushed to 10 today, and maybe I would have been fine. However, my week ahead is a tough one and I knew it wasn’t worth it.

Quiet Talker

One of the hardest things that we as runners have to learn to do is listen to your bodyIt actually is very smart and you know when you need to give yourself a break. We push ourselves too hard and eventually we will break. Sure, it may not be today or tomorrow but we keep pushing ourselves, we can only take so much.

Listen to Your Body

This weekend was challenging for me. I was getting the rest I needed, but my body wasn’t recovering. Maybe it is sickness getting ready to strike or maybe it was just a sign that I needed to back off. Either way, I knew it was time to cut myself some slack.

LIsten

I don’t know if this exactly a great “motivational monday” kick start, but it is an important lesson that has taken me many years to learn. We all know that we need to do it, but actually doing it when it comes down to it can be very challenging!

Here is to positive thoughts for a big week of running ahead! Hopefully giving myself a bit of a break this weekend will mean great runs coming up!

 

When is the last time you had to give yourself a break?

Are you good at cutting runs short when you need to?

 

 

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