Listening to your body (Read 1196 times)

So I have been feeling really guilty. I need some folks to either tell me to HTFU or tell me I have done the right thing. I was all set to surpass the 40 mile mark last week. I got up Saturday morning and ran 11 miles. As soon as I got home I began working on my wife's Mothers Day present. I spent from 9am til 9pm building a deck on our house. I got up Sunday and pretty much did the same thing except I finished around 8pm. The good news is that the deck is finished and DW is very pleased. The bad news is that I have not done that much manual labor in a long while and I was totally exhausted. I ended up not running on Sunday. Not only that but I was still sore yesterday so I skipped my run and decided to use monday as a rest day instead of Tues. this week. I felt like if I would have gone out and run I would have either done damage to my body or to my psyche. Do others take similar short breaks like this when they feel worn down? Should I just have done a couple of short runs? The good news is that I'm really looking forward to my run tonight.

HTFU ya big sissy!!

That didn't take long!

Listening to your body is far more important than getting that extra workout in to hit some random mileage threshold. Look at the bright side. You got to play with tools all weekend, you build something you can be proud, you did 2 days of cross training and your wife is happy. Whats to feel guilty about?

Listening to your body is far more important than getting that extra workout in to hit some random mileage threshold. Look at the bright side. You got to play with tools all weekend, you build something you can be proud, you did 2 days of cross training and your wife is happy. Whats to feel guilty about?

^^^wise^^^

Thanks everyone, that helps! Now the real question- How do I turn running into a healthy hobby instead of an obsession? Ahh, nevermind.

When you figure it out, let us know. I think most of us have "issues."

It's almost - probably always - never worth your time to squeeze in an extra workout when you're not feeling it for no purpose other than to hit some arbitrary number of miles. We all do it, of course. An idiot friend and I had a recent 89 mile week, capped by a 40+ run ... and both of us talked about adding an extra half mile, or doing it later that day, just to hit 90. We didn't do it ... but that stupid 89 miles still bugs me. And that is so stupid. Beyond stupid. The numbers are meaningless. Risking injury or burnout or just making yourself not enjoy running as much to hit some meaningless number is dumb. But again ... most of us do it. Especially those of us in the mileage clubs. But ironically, most of the runners I respect the most are also those most likely to have weeks totaling 49 or 69. They worry about what matters. They're smart enough to know that 70 isn't any better than 69. (In fact, 69 is way better, but that's entirely different subject altogether). You've had perfect consistent weeks for at least the last six weeks, slowly building mileage perfectly. There's no point in worrying about 3 miles you didn't run to hit 40. You'll hit it next week or the one after. And then 50. In my book, skipping your Sunday run shows you have some common sense and discipline. It was smart. I'd have been on the treadmill at 10:00 p.m. doing the last three miles. Because I'm not smart.

Listen to your body. You might enter in your log book that you spent 2 days building a deck. It's not running, but it contributes to your fatigue. 10 yrs from now looking back on your log, you'll know *why* you didn't run.

Well the deck got me again this past weekend. This time I stayed up late with friends drinking too many beers on the deck. Before I knew it the kids were in bed and I had pulled the cooler over to the table so I didn't have to get up any more. Needless to say, I had a hard time finding any motivation to run yesterday. It feels ok though. I told myself (based on advice I got here) that I needed a "easy" week and kept my mileage under 30. I just got back from a 8.75 mile run and feel great.