Hey there! Okay, so sorry for being a bit lame as of late. Totally was MIA here on the blog yesterday (well, I guess technically my Friday late night post ended in the wee hours of Saturday morning) and then things were kind of touch and go towards the end of last week.
I was just feeling pretty tired and run down and things came to a nice crashing halt yesterday. So what has my exciting, living it up twenty-something lifestyle kept be busy doing the past two days? A whole lotta nothing exciting…namely sleeping. I can usually get a good sense of how I’m doing/feeling by my workouts and on Saturday I had wanted to do a harder workout and get in more miles than ended up happening.
But it was one of those times when the first five minutes feel like a sucker punch to the face, the first mile passes and you just tell yourself you’ll get into the ‘groove’ and feel better as you keep going. That does happen a lot, I mean I do always tell people the hardest part of working out is usually getting going and the first few steps. That five minute benchmark is a funny one, before that you can feel like death but then 5:01 ticks by and you say, ‘Hey this isn’t so bad.’
But after three miles rolled by and that would usually be the end of my warm-up I knew there wasn’t going to be a tempo effort in me for the day. I finished somewhere over 8 miles, did some arm weights, lunges, and called it a day. I just felt zapped and tired and hoped that a little extra rest day would leave me feeling fresher by the morning. I slothed around and made good friends with my pillow. If competitive sleeping were a real sport, then sign me up! So basically foodage and nappage. I know how to do my Saturdays up in full party fashion, right? Sad when I’m about as wild as the geriatric ward.
Well, today I’m still feeling in my little tired funk…but not as bad. It doesn’t really make total make sense, I was hoping I’d feel better and maybe that tempo would happen. I’m not gonna lie, I still feel guilty ‘skipping’ a hard workout even though I’m not actually training for a race. It’s still hard for me to cut myself a break and not feel like I’m just a complaining slacker. But being that those ‘easy’ 8 miles felt way harder than they should have I tried to tell myself that my legs felt like lead bricks and forcing a workout wasn’t smart, being that I knew it would have ended pretty ugly.
So I’m hoping that the old bod just needed some extra R and R and should be back to full strength soon. I don’t know if I’m a little sick or something. I put in my 8 miles and change, then some core and abs. And just laying low for the rest of the night.
Funny as it sounds, as long as I’m able to still get my run in I feel partially okay with just being a slug for the rest of the day. I figure I earned my right to be lazy. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be out and doing something fun with my friends or family but this weekend was going to be low-key whether I liked it or not. That’s okay, there were plenty of other blogs I could read where people were doing much more thrilling endeavors so I can vicariously live through them. There was also plenty of action to read about happening on the track at USA Nat’s. And if I watched a bunch of awesome athletes busting their @$$es, that’s gotta count for some kind of extra workout. I sweat just as much as I raised fork to lips as they did on the bell lap, right? Sure, Cait, whatever your irrational mind wants to fool you into thinking.
Well, all this tying is just a bit too much exertion for me, so I’ll be off. Sorry this is both a boring post and somewhat one with me just complaining. Something I really don’t like to do all that much of. I know there are days or stretches that we feel run down, and a few days ago the topic of denying that you’re sick was raised at Shut Up and Run. I think lots of us do that, or we don’t like to admit we’re tired; sometimes I think we do it to fool no one other than ourselves. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that niggling ‘guilt’ if we don’t do a workout the way we had planned it to be and opt for an easy run instead. Or even take a rest day completely. In our sport we are constantly navigating the fine line between doing enough but not too much. Recognizing ‘normal’ pain of exertion versus the different pain of a potential injury. Being smart enough to back off when you should but being gritty enough to not back off and push to the finish if you’re just feeling the muscle burn of a hard race or workout.
So admitting to ourselves that we are sick or overly tired makes us feel lazy or like a complainer. But really it shouldn’t, I think that’s why having a coach or an outside person can help. They can be the one who ‘gives you permission’ to cut yourself some slack if it’s obvious you need it. It doesn’t make you a weak person and in the long run it’s for the better. So I’m hoping my few low-key days will leave me feeling a little fresher in the upcoming week and I’ll be able to get that dang tempo done so I won’t have it weighing on my conscious. And I mean I did still put in some miles. 🙂
1) What did you do this weekend? I’m sure even those at the Sun River Retirement Community must have outdone me this time. 🙂
2) Do you know the ‘guilt’ I’m talking about?
3) Did you have a race this weekend? Time to bust out the bragging…let’s hear it and don’t be shy!
ahhhh! girl…this post was perfect timing for me. Today I COULD NOT get out of bed. And I was like seriously?? I slept 13 hours yesterday. So at 7 I was finally like that is IT I am going to the gym. But my foot was bugging me and so I was like "k…I will just do cross-training." I did it and I felt fine but after I was like…seriously? Would it have been that bad to just take another day off? Since when did "foot bugging me = just cross train" as opposed to someone with any common sense: "foot bugging me so ALERT ALERT take a day off you dummy." Daily battle for sure. Its a tough balance between wanting to be smart but then knowing how good a workout feels. Anyway…I can totally relate to this post. You are awesome…and glad you got some miles in but were also able to take care of yourself this weekend 🙂
Sounds exactly like me a couple of weeks ago when I had bad runs all week. The day I had a tempo scheduled was the worst. I warmed up, but never felt warmed up. Tried to force myself into a tempo pace even though I was tired and stale, but only made it half a mile (supposed to be a 5-mile tempo) before I had to bag it. I still shuffled 8 miles which I'm sure didn't do me any good other than to not feel as guilty for not doing the tempo. Of course I still felt guilty. I took an extra day off and slept a lot. The next few days felt much better.
I never realized how much lack of sleep can harm my running. I think in the past I was just so crazy that I didn't allow myself to be tired because subconsciously I associated being tired with being lazy. It's still hard for me to distinguish the two.
Hope you feel better!! Last week I ran while sick, my thinking being that I could "sweat it out". Hah, yea right. I cut it short bc my lungs were on fire. I took the time off, let my body get better and then finally got in an enjoyable sweat sesh!!
Sometimes weekends of nothing are the absolute best!! However this weekend one of my friends from high school got married!! So much fun 🙂
I think everyone gets these days. When the alarm clock is a distant annoyance and your bed is the only world that you are capable of dealing with. It's important to pay attention to that feeling sometimes and not beat yourself up about it later on.
Much more easily said than done I know and I am very guilty of feeling guilty. My younger sister is a great reality check for me on those days and tends to give me the wake up call that I really need. It's only one day in your week/training schedule/life so don't sweat it!
TOTALLY get the guilt!!!!! It's like even the smallest bit of slack is a molehill. Wait, did that make sense? For example, I kicked my ass doing a killer skipping/muscle endurance interval today, and had a cupcake at a lunch celebration. I feel like I ate two entire cakes. Plus, I went out for dinner and they had a special that was cheaper than my healthy version and included a sundae. So obvs… I went with the special. Now I am thinking how hard I need to work tomorrow.
I haven't been online in like 2 days, and I miss you. I will never get less creepy.
fist off, i want to say THANK YOU so much for all of the support and kind words!! you guys are all so wonderful and really it's always nice to hear a little reaffirmation of the voice of 'sanity.' it's like we 'know' it's okay to cut ourselves some slack sometimes but being the one to give ourselves the permission can be tricky!
julia…you my friend pegged it! and i think u recognized that ur awesome bod is due for a break. u've been running a monster of a month and that foot is a little reminder from ur bod to give it some R and R. 🙂
txgirl…i actually totally thought of u when i packed in my tempo. i do 5 milers too, and knew from my warm-up that anything i tried to do would just be ugly. so it was the 8 mile shuffle…lol. but i remembered how we were talking and that helped ease some of that guilt, so thank you. u helped and u didn't even know it at the time. 🙂 oh, and the sleep-tired guilt thing, i used to be really hard on myself about that but now i have a love affair with my pillow. i hope u're able to get more shut-eye, i know with ur job and hell boss that can be tricky.
Melissa….way to go for being super smart and knowing when enough was enough. lungs on fire are NOT a good thing! and even better that u were able to heal up in time to celebrate ur friends wedding! how much fun! headed over to de blog to check out the dets! 🙂
amy…u always put things so eloquently!! wonderful voice of reason and i'm happy to hear that ur sis is someone who can give you that reality check when you need it. 🙂
katy…why am i not surprised u've got the same little guilt monger??! 😉 and the thing with food/workout more is also ringing true! but let me say this loud and proud: YOU DESERVED THAT FLIPPING CUPCAKE AND YUMMY SUNDAE AND U DON'T HAVE TO 'PUNISH' URSELF FOR IT!!!! okay, i know WAY easier to say it, but i hope u can take it from me and believe it. first of all, one or two treats does not a fat sloth make anyone. second, u deserve to eat what u want and wat is tasty. without getting preachy here, wat helps me to remember that is i think of my sister who i love more than anything in the world. if she were to eat watever it was i had and then felt like she had to go bust her butt in overdrive i'd tell her to relax and just workout like she normally would. it's easier to think of urself in third person sometimes. 🙂 PS- ya, i missed ur hot butt around the online world…get back here cuz i miss ya tons! 🙂
Hi Caitlin! Just found your blog and love it! I'm curious if you're going to be racing anytime soon? It seems like you're getting some great training in!!
thanks so much for stopping by and i'm happy to hear you find my ramblings of interest! 🙂 as for racing, no i don't have anything planned. just having fun running away so i can chow down like a runner and that feeling you get after a nice sweat session. 🙂
Katy, you definitely deserve to eat treats. That's one of the perks to being a runner. You don't need to work extra hard to punish yourself because in the grand scheme of things, your metabolism is already burning the calories. It would take a while of being completely sedentary and eating nothing but junk all day to make any difference.
amen sister!!! 🙂