Heather Daniel: Run with It

I said I would take two whole weeks off before I picked up running again. Fourteen complete days. Fourteen days to recover, relax and reconnect. Fourteen days to sleep. Fourteen days to catch up on my laundry, my friends and my work, all of which went somewhat neglected in the days leading up to the marathon. Fourteen days. No running.

I made it.

Almost.

Ten days isn’t so bad, right? Ten IS very close to fourteen. Ten days IS more than a week. And let me tell you, when I looked at the elliptical machine tonight at the gym, the idea of spending another second on that thing seemed impossible. So I went for the treadmill. And I punished it. I poured out all my worries. All my stress. All my bad vibes onto that rolling mat. It was fantastic. So much better than the elliptical!

Ok, allow me to back track.  “fantastic” isn’t quite the right adjective. Maybe it was  “satisfyingly  productive” or “satisfactionaly sweaty”, or even just plain “nice.”  Whatever. It did the trick. This week has been VERY long and VERY cold and VERY trying – and while treadmills are not very fantastic by themselves, they are infinitely more fantastic than the elliptical.

Anywhoodle. What was I saying? Oh, right. So I went running today, earlier than I should, but feeling at least like I’ve taken a healthy break from self-punishment and that my body is probably sufficiently recovered and ready to attack the next training cycle. That’s a very good thing.

But you might ask, “What on earth have you been doing Heather since you haven’t been running”

Well! It turns out that when you don’t run like a maniac you have a lot of extra time to do a lot of extra stuff. Here’s the quick and dirty laundry list of what’s kept me occupied:

1. I won a case (a whole freakin’ case!) of sardines from this nifty website

2. I read three books.

3. I baked, I roasted, I cooked. Do you know how much money I saved these past two weeks by cooking my own food?

4. I indulged. On coconut bliss ice cream; on breakfast when normally I’d be running, on sleeping in late when I’d usually be pounding the pavement. I felt delightfully decadent sleeping til 7 AM on a weekday!

5. I relaxed. I didn’t worry about training, or weekly mileage, or diet. I just relaxed. I just let myself be. And it was wonderful.

And now I’m restored, recharged and ready to go!