Don't mess with me today. I'm in a mood. Have been all week. It's an edgy feeling. It's like an itch I can't scratch. It's making me write sentences without clauses. It's making me sound like bad Hemingway. It sucks.
The problem is that I'm on Day 4 of not running.
After Sunday's marathon, I promised myself to take a full week off from the roads to help my creaky 50-year-old body recover a bit from the race and the four months of putting in 50-to-60 miles per week.
I was fine on Monday, not really that sore even, but glad for the day off after having to drive back to Davis from Eugene Sunday afternoon. I went to the pool and swam a half mile just to flush the waste products from my legs.
Tuesday was an OK day as well. I wasn't really jonesing for a run. I knew my body needs the rest, blah, blah, blah...
Yesterday, I started feeling antsy and irritable, kind of like how imagine a meth addict would feel coming down off the high. I swam a mile in the pool to try to satisfy the fitness urge, but it's just not the same.
Neither is cycling. For me, running is my primary stress reducer. Better than Prozac. Better than Jack Daniels (the alcohol, not the running coach). Better than (OK, different than) sex.
The thing about not running is that you suddenly have so much time on your hands. I've experienced this phenomena when I've been injured, too. I've been getting to work this week at 6:30 simply because I'm accustomed to being up at 5 a.m. for the run.
I promised myself all during this last training cycle that I'd take a full week off after the race, then resume training. Hey, I've got to be in good hill shape for the 100th running of the Dipsea in mid-June.
But now I'm starting to hedge on this not-running thing. First, it was, 'Well, if I run this Sunday, it'll be a full six days off.' Then, it became, 'Why waste a Saturday. Maybe just a slow 5-miler.' Now, it's, 'You know, I could just do a jog to shake out the legs on Friday without doing any damage.'
We'll see what happens.
In the meantime, check out this blog post from Ryan Hall, the elite marathoner, who takes a full two weeks off after each race.
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