Back to Training

credit: www.beautyredefined.net

I ended up being a bit of a bum and taking the week after I got home from Princess off - we flew home on Tuesday and I did absolutely no form of official exercise Wednesday-Sunday.  I used the excuse that my feet were still recovering from some race-day blisters and that I needed to catch up on some much-needed rest after 4 incredibly hectic days at Disney, so sleeping in won out over early morning workouts, and of course, throw in a nice dash of some long days at work and...yup...no running or strength training.  But I think it was a needed break, and certainly 5 days off wasn't going to ruin my fitness level, though it did result in a little guilt build-up by Sunday evening.

Which meant that Monday was a new day that led to a new week!  I got in both mid-week runs and all three strength training sessions! Then the real test - "long run" Saturday was on the horizon...Saturday morning dawned overcast and windy, with a forecast of thunderstorms later in the day and overnight, so I knew I needed to get in my scheduled six miles (which I'd talked down to 5 miles in the course of getting out of bed) as early as I could that morning.

So I finally rolled out of bed, collected all my running gear (some was still in my suitcase from the race (no judgement!), some was in my running corner, and lots of my clean running clothes were still sitting on the kitchen table post-laundry, not having made it back upstairs yet) and I headed outside just before 10am.  Wow, I definitely should've tested the temps before I left the house - back inside to switch out longsleeves for short (it just looked cool and windy - it was warm and humid).  This time I made it halfway down the block before it started sprinkling - oh he!! no - I was not in the mood to deal with a rainy run...so I turned around and headed back inside intending to put in the miles on the treadmill instead.

And, well...the best laid plans and all that...  I was distracted by an email on my phone and ended up lying on the bed, entirely too comfortable, until about 12:45 when I finally convinced myself that I HAD to get on the treadmill.  And by that point, 5 miles in front of the TV just sounded...long and boring.  Sure enough, 5 miles turned into 3, and at that point I was done.

Oh well, 3 miles is better than nothing, right?  And I'm officially back to training with my first post-Princess not-so-long run.  I am LOVING the feeling of knowing that the next races on my schedule are "just" a 10-miler and "just" a half after that.  I still can't get over how much marathon training skewed my perspective on distance.  It makes me positively giddy to know that there aren't any loooooooooooooong training runs anywhere in my future!!!

Q4U: Do you take time off after a race?  What do you do on weeks where you just aren't feeling it?  Do you push yourself to do something or let your laziness win?  I've had times where I've done both...how about you?