Not so Long Run

In training for a marathon you have some long runs and some not so long runs. Saturday was a not so long run. I was planning on getting up at 6 and doing 12 miles. A couple of things got in my way though. One, my IT bands have really been bothering me. They are tight and painful every time I walk down the stairs and especially for about the first mile when I run. Two: when I woke up it was raining. Normally I don't think that would've stopped me but with my leg issues added to the rain I just couldn't do it.

Taber suggested we go to the gym and put the kids in childcare and run on the treadmills together. I knew I wasn't up for 12 miles on the treadmill but I figured I could at least do 10. Well being the chronically late person that I am we didn't end up getting to the gym till almost 12. Since Brinley is under 12 months she has to have a reservation for childcare and our reservation was from 11-1. The lady was like, um yeah, you're going to have to pick her up at 1. Doh! That only gave us 1 hour. So by the time I warmed up and got going I was only able to squeeze in 6 miles. I tried to run hard to compensate for not running long and after warming up I kicked it up to 7 miles per hour (8:34 minute pace) and then went to 7.5 (8 minute pace) I worked up a nice little sweat but was still bummed that I couldn't do more.

When I got home and was feeling all down on myself I picked up my marathon training book and read this great quote, " Don't be a slave to the program. I can't stress this enough when I speak to groups. You have your own personal rhythms and you also have to factor in what's going on in your life. Looking back I should have been more flexible. That's why I tell people that if they have a long run planned and they're overly tired, wait until they feel more rested. I should have listened to my body more that my guilt. If you need to take off, do it. Don't risk burning out. "

I was really glad I read that. The program is an outline, not a mandate. I can't beat myself up over a short run. I have to be flexible and remember that life happens. Kids need naps and sometimes you're late. Legs need rest and sometimes you have to scale back. In the end what matters is that I do my best and enjoy the journey.