Having completed a double marathon, I needed to decide on a recovery plan. I opted for the “hair of the dog” method and laced up my shoes this morning for a recovery run.
I was slow and somewhere in the back half of my usual route I felt mildly awful. Lots of walking in the final few miles but I suppose that makes it a Medoc Marathon style Balade… only this one didn’t end with a huge banquet and fill-it-yourself wine casks.
As rough as it was, I’m glad to have run than not to have done so. I’ll be back into normal running shape soon but in the meantime it’s a reminder of what I keep telling my mom — some days just kinda suck. She was lamenting that her daily mileage was getting easier and then she had a really rough day that got her a bit discouraged. We’ve all been there — some days are just plain off. What should be a relatively normal day of mileage seems like a Herculean task. But by pushing through and persevering, that’s when real benefits start to pile up. It’s easy to go out and do your mileage when you’re feeling motivated and on. But the days you really don’t want to go, when you’re de-motivated and demoralized, those are the days I find I really, REALLY need to go out and pound the pavement, I don’t always enjoy running but I always enjoy having run.
I’m sure I’ve written about this many times before but it’s worth repeating — no matter how often or how far you run, some days just kinda suck. But they’re a lot worse if you DON’T go out for your usual workout… and it’s a slippery slope of skipping days to skipping weeks to giving up. Nothing wrong with taking time off but you always should have a plan for starting back up — it’s the only sane thing to do for this insane world.
And so today like most days, I went for a run. And the day is better for it.