Whatever you want to call it -- a month off, a month of laziness, a month of recovery -- today I am even happier about the choices I have made concerning racing this fall. It's raining ... it's windy ... it's strangely cold ... and I don't have a gym membership. While I respect all of you training for an upcoming event, I am perfectly content to get an extra half hour of sleep in the morning.
Last week I started experiencing some discomfort (not pain) in my feet and some pain (not discomfort) in my back. Actually, my back pain probably started two weeks ago. It was never anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I had just come off a few months of increasing my mileage and had just ran a long race -- it wasn't anything unusual ... but it wasn't going away.
Then this week it clicked -- I'm wearing nicer shoes to work that didn't have gel insoles in them. I hadn't really wore those shoes too much over the summer, so my feet really weren't used to them. So last night I bought some new insoles and today ... well, today everything felt much better. Problem solved. I guess my feet have become spoiled with using gel insoles, but man they feel good.
I'm still easing off the mileage with running while putting a little more emphasis on the bike. It's a whole lot of little things adding up to some fun workouts. September will eventually go down as a good recovery month for me. It really has helped my mind a lot with not worrying about racing.
With an upcoming crazy weekend with a baby shower out of town, I've never been more happy to not run as I have this week. With a walk and short jog with my dog yesterday, it was liberating to know that I'm just taking this week to do whatever when it comes to exercise. It's nice to know I decided to avoid a marathon this year ... had I chosen a marathon this fall, I would've kept to the rigorous routine and probably would have driven myself to the ground this week. Like I said earlier this week, maybe next year.
When I get back to town Sunday evening, I will have figured out what I'm doing this fall. The only thing that makes sense for me with a baby on the way is the 10 miler; anything after that isn't worth traveling to. And I'm holding a grudge against 13.1 miles right now, so I don't want to even think about that distance. I was almost convinced to run the Baltimore Half, but the price just jumped to $80, so I quickly thought twice about that. There are several community races around here that I may do and I may be very happy to just do those.
Meanwhile, here's a reminder for myself on what I want to do next year ...
