Rest days. Those days we look forward to on our really hard work outs thinking “TOMORROW I get to sleep in!!!” (Ok, so I have yet to get my butt out of bed consistently in the morning.. I do my workouts at night.. but still – you get the point). Our bodies need the rest days to help build muscle and recover from the damage we inflict on them in our attempts at being “faster, better, stronger”. Yesterday was one of my wonderful rest days.. And I felt guilty as soon as I got home. My thighs are tired, my calves exhausted, and my hamstrings are tight – all telling me that I need a day off. And yet, I can’t help but feel like I should “go run, just a couple of miles..” And I almost did – yet I know my body needs the rest and time to repair.
In a situation like I am in now – coming back from surgery, I can’t help but want “more more more.” Fortunately a friend just repeated some advice I gave him a while ago – “Nothing Good Happens Fast.” This has certainly been true in my life and also very frustrating. I can’t help but look at the fact I was being patient LAST year at this time, slowly working my way up and building the stamina. I have to be careful because that feeling helps to contribute to my wanting to skip my rest day and run… Or go try and run 6 miles in my VFFs, even though I know i am not ready to go further than 2 or so. When I have run to far in my VFFs, I end up having to skip multiple days as my body heals.
With my running, I am trying to keep this in mind in more than just my VFFs. If I did go run 2 miles yesterday (which would probably become 3 or 4 as I headed out), then I may find myself physically unable to run today, possibly calling my running-buddy and having to cancel our run on friday. By maintaining my schedule, I can rest up, then do a small run today, and head out for my five mile “long” run with him – right on schedule in the planned cold wet rain/sleet/snow mix. (one would have thought that we would be safe from that – given its the first weekend in April.) With the day off, and a short run before hand, friday I should be good to go, full of vigor and vim for Saturday!
But yes.. I do still feel guilty about not running yesterday. Perhaps that will go away when I have been running again – for more than a month or so…
I run, because I am a runner. Having realized that I have always "been a runner" - even when I went years with out running, I am learning how it has integrated itself in all aspects of my life. When I started running in highschool, my perspective on life changed. Funny that I didn't realize how much it had affected it until just recently.
Once and Future Runner 
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