Sometimes Rest Is Best

Yep, this is pretty much the flow of my life :-)

It's been six-plus weeks since running my first marathon and I felt the effects for much of those weeks.

Now, I was not injured, and there's nothing major going on with me (I hope and think not). It's just been hard for me to get back up on the horse per sa since covering the 26.2-mile jaunt.

Of course, I kind of rushed back to running pretty quick after running the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon. I *thought* I was easing back into running by training with my bride as she prepares for her first 5K. The pace we ran was much slower than what I normally ran, so it felt easy on my legs.

Buuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttttttt ...

No matter how fast you run or how slow you go, miles are still miles. And the miles were wearing on me.

In the week right after the marathon, I ran 18 miles before upping the mileage to 31 the following week. In the four weeks after the marathon, I ran 104 miles with very few off days - running 27 times.

I hit the wall.

My legs were spent. I wanted to run. I longed to run. If it was gorgeous out, I felt the call to run. Heck, if it was raining, I wanted to splish splash my way through the neighborhood for a few miles.

I was at the proverbial crossroad every runner faces from time to time: To rest or not to rest.

Rest won out. Thankfully.

Fortunately, a work trip was on the schedule and I knew finding time to run would be hard. While I do go stir-crazy when I don't/can't run, the forced break was needed. During that week, I only got 10 miles in running.

Ten. Miles. In. A. Week.

That was it.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had run less than 20 miles in a week let alone 10. But guess what? My body is thanking me for the R&R. In the week and half since, I have posted 44 miles and feel pretty strong. I even tackled some hills for the first time since the Knoxville Marathon.

Most of us runners have Type A personalities when it comes to our mileage. We want to run, run, run and run some more. Yet, every now and then, rest is the best thing for us.

Happy running!