Generally, people say that post-race you should take one day of rest per mile raced. So, for a half-marathon that equates to about two weeks. I can’t say I disagree. I mean, I need time to heal and get my legs back to a state where I don’t feel achy or wobbly. At this point the immediate soreness that I felt on Monday has faded. That doesn’t mean that I’m ready to go though. Internally, I’m still working though a few fatigue issues as is exhibited by yesterday’s post. I might be ready to go by Sunday, but meanwhile I need to work harder on being lazy. After work today I decided to take a long walk. About 65 minutes later I was really feeling a lot of discomfort under my left heel. If I were to compare it to something, I’d say it felt like it was bruised. Makes sense to me. So, question is: why am I not resting my legs more and just taking it easy? Why am I forcing myself to stay active? What does it prove? Why am I willing to risk injury? Seriously. I really need to force myself to really consider the importance of rest and regeneration. These rules of thumb exist for a reason.
Category Archive: inactivity
Learning how to kill time
I really need to work on my time killing techniques. Seriously.
This morning I got through our scheduled 18K run. It was actually quite awesome. The night before I had the sense to load up on water. Yes, I had to pee in the middle of the night, but seeing as how I didn’t have the nasty throbbing headache after the run I say it was worth it. I was feeling so good that I even added two more kilometres to make a round 20. Nice. Yes, I was tired but not thoroughly fatigued. Does that distinction make sense? Anyway.
I had plans on heading to my plyometrics class but I had an hour and a half to kill. I started to wonder what I should do with my time. I decided to head to the big Chinese supermarket to browse around. I also knew it’d be a good opportunity to get some food to replenish my stores prior to the class. Sounds good, but when I got there I was pretty much assaulted by all of the smells of good food. I ended up getting a small dim sum combo that had a few pieces of siu mai and har gow. Upon walking past the sushi bar I ended up getting a combo with salmon sushi, tuna sushi, and California roll. A quick round through the bakery encouraged me to pick up some whole wheat croissants and some carrot bread. Seeing as how I seemed to be picking up a good amount of food, I had the sense to pay for my stuff and get out of there. OK, so it’s not like I planned on eating everything I bought right away, but the fact that I got a lot for what was meant to be a time killing act, and even left sooner than I wanted indicated to me that this wasn’t the best of choices. At least, if I were to go there again I’d need to plan things out and take my damn time through the aisles.
With an hour to kill I drove down the road to a small mall that I was sort of familiar with. Last time I was there was a few years ago. Back then it seemed to be on some sort of tipping point where it could choose to become something a bit cooler, or tumble into dead mediocrity. Well, upon my revisit many storefronts were closed and the demographic was definitely older. The only people I saw there were old people getting their exercise indoors. One of the anchors of the mall is an outlet store with discount fashions. I took a look around and proceeded to walk right out. I’m not trying to be a snob, but…really? I’m totally not the target for that place. In the end, I just got back to my car, rolled down the windows and proceeded to listen to music for about half an hour.
Yeah, so that didn’t go as well as I was planning. I think next time I should just head to Best Buy or HMV. Sure, I can continue to try to search around in hopes of finding some secret place only visited by people in the know, but what’s the point? This is a battlefield where it’s not worth fighting the battle, don’t you think? Bah.
Was going to
Today was going to be awesome. I was going to wake up and make a good breakfast of pancakes and bacon. I was going to head over to the nearby mall and take my pants in for alteration. While waiting I was going to just wander the mall and take stock of all the services on offer there. I know, I’ve been here for a half year and yet I still haven’t familiarized myself enough with that mall. I was going to head over to Wal-mart to get some milk. Upon bringing it back I was going to make cookies using that butter that’s been sitting on the counter since last Sunday. If that wasn’t going to work I was going to go for a good walk around my neighbourhood. The last time I walked around was that day that I walked home all the way from work, and that was in the dark, so I didn’t really get a chance to appreciate things. I was planning on making a pit stop over at the Dairy Queen because the weather was really great.
That was the plan.
Instead, I decided to spend the day napping, playing video games, and eating junk food.
Laaaaaaaame.
Reclaiming Saturdays
When my improv classes on Saturdays ended a few weeks ago, I was telling my classmates just how glad I was that the new classes would be on Mondays. When they’d ask why, I told them that I was just glad to have my Saturdays back. It’s true: having a class right in the middle of the day is kind of disruptive. In response, they’d usually respond by agreeing and talking about how it prevents someone from hanging out all day. I just smile and nod at the notion. Secretly though, I knew that was pretty much untrue in my case. Sure, I go out now and then on Saturdays, but in all likelihood I’m more likely to be at home. So, it’s not that I want to reclaim Saturdays so that I can go out, but rather to have the freedom to not doing anything if I wanted to.
And I exercised that freedom today. It was glorious.
And just like that…
And just like that, Friday is over, and so is my week off of work. Well, technically I still have the weekend to get through, but for all intents and purposes I’m going to just say that this is it. Now, I suppose I could get down on myself for not having done everything I really wanted to do. I didn’t go to the bank to talk to my personal finance person about my RRSPs. I didn’t go to the doctor to get a physical. I didn’t make time to head to Yorkdale for new clothes although, I did get some clothes from the local mall. No doubt, there’s a lot that should have been done.
It’s probably out of character for me to say it, but I need more time off! Usually I’m chomping at the bit to get back. I made a really strong effort to not put myself online and accessible to my colleagues. I’ve had enough people tell me that I needed to just disconnect. Yes, I slipped up here and there, but this time around I really did manage to separate myself more than I ever had before. What’s different this time around? I think there’s now just a missing sense of urgency. I refuse to allow myself to get caught in all the panic. Not anymore.
So yes, I need more time off because this one week just didn’t seem to cut it. All the same, I’m actually proud of this week just because it was sort of frivolous: it was all for myself. I don’t do that enough, you know? Sometimes it seems like I’m way too busy thinking about other things such that my own needs kind of get lost in the shuffle. I can’t afford to lose myself any more. It seems that the corporate world hardly cares about the individual. It’s up to each person to keep himself or herself a priority. I should never forget that.
Intertwined with the rest
My legs have long since recovered from last Sunday’s race. Even so, I decided to pass up this morning’s run for a bit of rest. I figured that reclaiming a Sunday morning once again after a long period of training would be good for the mind and body. Really, it kind of was. I mean, I was able to take the time to put together a ridiculous breakfast: pancakes, bacon, eggs, apple, grapes, coffee. Yeah, no kidding, eh? I went all out. When that was all done though, I was kind of stuck wondering “what now?” Another hour or two later, I was starting to regret my failure to head out: I actually kind of felt empty.
It makes me pause to think about just how intertwined the activity of running has become with my regular activities. I’m not a great runner; I’m not fast, or terribly strong, but my reputation for having a certain tenacity is well known in the club. I’m persistent and determined because this is an activity that I truly enjoy. If I’m ever frustrated or stressed, I know that there’s nothing like a good run to help get the happier chemicals flowing. My life is so much better for picked up this activity over two years ago. To put it plainly, I can’t go back. I don’t want to go back. Maybe it’s hard for a lot of people to understand. If you run though, you’ll get it. It’s hard to qualify, you know?
Anyway, this lapse is done, I guess. Soon enough I’ll be back on the road training, teaching, and possibly inspiring others (if it’s a good day). Time to move on.
Just need to blank out a bit
Maaaaan, I haven’t been this tired in a while. I realize that the past week or two hasn’t been restful, so it shouldn’t be surprising in the least. Still…I’m desperately in need of some time to just veg-out and not do a thing for a while. I want to be able to just lay here on my couch and blank out for a bit. It’s in having such a day or two that my batteries will be recharged, and I’ll be able to face all of the challenges that get thrown my way.
Saturday cannot come soon enough.
This short break from running
It’s occurred to me that I haven’t really written about running and training for a little while now. The simple reason is that I’m really in between training sessions right now. I’ve been attempting to get some runs in on Sundays but all in all I’ve sort of cut back. Yes, I feel mild pangs of guilt about not training as hard these days, but I’m slowly coming to the realization that I can’t allow myself to feel terrible about it. I mean, I can’t be “on” all the time, right?
What’s been good about this time? Well, for one thing my work schedule has felt pretty even. During training, when I have to make it to Markham to make my clinic I have to leave work early. To leave work early, I have to arrive early. And to arrive early I have to wake an hour earlier than I usually do. Yes, it’s only an hour, but that little bit really does make a difference. For the past week or two I’ve also been able to catch some TV shows when they air instead of resorting to having to PVR them. When something is recorded, it usually takes me a long while before I can actually get around to watching what I missed. Lastly, not having to commute way up north means that I’ve had the chance to send my car to the mechanic without having to worry about really weird scheduling.
The break has been good. That being said, it’s about time I start getting back into the groove of things. Without running, all I am is a computer geek with a job that keeps me at my desk in front of a screen all day. That’s not really a particularly healthy lifestyle, don’t you know? Running acts as a reminder of sorts that I can accomplish things that I normally wouldn’t associate with myself. That knowledge grounds me and makes me acknowledge my general awesomeness. I need to start up again really soon, because I’m running the Angus Glen 10K on November 2. Yes, I can do the distance, but I still need to have some “hay in the barn” for that race, know what I mean?
So anyway, the new half-marathon clinic is beginning next Tuesday. The goal race is the Chilly Half-Marathon in Burlington. I think it’s ending late February (or something like that). Yes, that means training during the strange winter months. I skipped training during the previous winter months, but this time around I’m going to make the commitment to get the job done. It’s going to be freaking awesome. I will be sweating like mad under various layers. I will have snot dropping from my nose and probably all over my gloves. I will be sporting bad hat hair when I take my tuque off. Even with all of that I will love every minute.
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