When I stepped outside this morning, it was a beautiful day. The sky was bright blue with some big, fluffy clouds and the temperature was nice and cool, but not cold.
I wanted to run.
But my schedule called for a rest day.
If you remember, the first month (or two) of my training just sucked. It was hot, my pace was terrible and I was completely unmotivated.
But I slogged through those awful runs (err, most of them), and now here we are at the end of September, and not running feels like not brushing my teeth, just not something I’d do right now. It’s a habit. I don’t think about it. I just run.
I show up to Jess’ weekly runs, and I run what she tells me, and I feel awesome afterwards. Every single one of those tough runs she makes us do makes me feel stronger and more ready for race day, and my long runs and races are finally starting to reflect that. (This week’s was an awesome one – check out her blog if you want to do it, too!)
I dragged my not-really-a-morning-person-and-a-current-work-from-home self up to the park at 6am, and dragged Julianne and her friend Christie on the Harlem Hill loop workout without even protesting the 6am start…too much.
And then I woke up this morning and just wanted to run, rather than my usual (mostly) reformed lazy girl excitement over rest days.
The training is working, and it’s becoming ingrained in my legs and brain as a habit. Laura recently wrote about “not breaking the chain,” and while I know I obviously physically and mentally need rest days, it felt like breaking the chain and the habit today.
But I guess rest days are like tapers – also designed to make you more antsy for your next run.
8 miles tomorrow, 16 on Sunday, including the inaugural half in my hometown!
Bring it on.
This is so inspiring! I’m working on getting back to this point after being injured. Wish me luck!
I am the same way – although I am total morning person, I struggle on the rest days especially when gorgeous out because running is what I do. Part of routine. And even on cross training days, I sometimes have to fight myself to not run instead. I even plan ahead and wear the wrong sneakers so I don’t change my mind when I step outside lol.
Those rest days are sneaky, aren’t they?
Two weeks out from a major event, I give myself permission for a sort of “taper” – I don’t pressure myself to get to the yoga studio or the gym b/c the stress of event planning is enough of a physical workout in itself. But the first thing I want to do after every event is take a HOT 90 minute vinyasa class.
So excited to hear your excitement – just go take the pup on a nice long leisurely walk – I find that sort of takes away the itchy legs a bit!
Rest days are tough sometimes. I have to remind myself that my body deserves it. Especially with the weather as perfect as it is right now!
I love it! My training has been fairly uninspiring this round and I find myself blaming it on making myself be in awesome running shape all year (running at least 1 race a month of varying distances), something that is new and challenging for me despite running for the last 4 or 5 years. Today, I woke up early, ate my breakfast and I’m waiting to digest a bit and then I’ll hit the road for my 8 miler. Good luck today! 🙂
Story of a training season right? What a session it has been — proof that any training session can turn around. I need to find a Jess!
You can use my Jess 🙂
She added me on Twitter. I kind of felt like a celebrity. 🙂