Day #24 - Loop it, loop it good.

Training is so weird. I know that each individual day in a cycle doesn't much matter. I know that what's important is the cumulative effect of 18 weeks of hard work. But it's hard not to be disappointed after a day like yesterday. When I step on the mill not wanting to do it and bail after 20 minutes. The whole reason that I lock myself into a training plan is to impose some structure on the madness; to not have to worry about listening to my body and wondering when I should push hard and when I should take it easy. No, I lock myself in, and just ask my body to dial up whatever numbers the calendar calls for. In this framework, deviating from The Plan is failure. But yesterday revealed the bogosity of the fiction: sometimes you do need to listen to your body and you can't let your schedule dictate the effort. Sometimes a day off is exactly what's needed.

I've been whining all week. Chris saw me come home on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday all tight and sore and crabby after struggling through my workouts. And yesterday was a ridiculously easy run. Not even 3 miles. But it was exactly what my legs needed. If I'd kept up with the numbers on the calendar, my workouts would have gotten poorer and poorer. Instead, when I tied up my shoes and hit the path today, suddenly running was fun again. My legs had pep and I felt like myself. Part of it was the weather, I'm sure, but the bulk was finally giving my body a proper rest.

Anyway, I ran the Loop from Pottruck today. Call it a 12mi run, with a middle 4 miles at close to tempo pace on the Kelly Drive backstretch.

Hooray.