Date: 1/15/22
Training Day: 41
Miles: 4.5
Time: 55 min
Shoes: Xero HFS
Weather: Mid 30s

How It Felt: The run felt amazing! I was a little slow on the hills, my Garmin told me I sucked, but running outside felt so good!

Commentary: A couple of weeks ago I decided to listen to my body instead of push myself to get my to-do list done. During my week of shiftwork I also listened to myself and skipped or pushed off a workout. That night I listened to a meditation by Sarah Blondin that talked about just this kind of thing.

“There are cycles we are ignoring. There is a spirit world we are forgetting the language of. All life needs rest, an incubation… All life needs time to below the surface, where it can breathe itself full and round, where it can reconnect with its nature and sprout again in its flushed form. Just as you can not force flowers to continually bloom, the same is true for all human beings. There is great value in letting go and dropping down. We must learn to remember, from time to time to be like the tree in the winter.”

I try to keep my strength workouts on my harder run days so that my rest/recovery days are just that. Since today was long run day, it was supposed to be strength workout today, and tomorrow would be a recovery day. Last night I stayed up late talking to the friends we are visiting. I stayed up until 11pm! That’s unheard of for me! I woke up at 7am for my long run, and even though I slept almost eight hours, the schedule change left me tired.

Instead of pushing my tired body through a strength workout, I decided to spend some time below the surface. Moving my strength workout tomorrow means it won’t quite be a recovery day, but I think it’ll be better for me in the long run.

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