REST DAY. SORT OF.

Rest day agenda

In terms of my marathon training, Sundays are my usual "rest day".  No running, no strides, no core, no dynamics.  Nothing.  In peak training, like now when my mileage is in the 70s and 80s consistently, it is far and away my favorite day of the week.  Along with coffee, it is the proverbial carrot that dangles in front of me as I power through all the miles Monday through Saturday.  Last week, in particular, was a tough one, again in regards to training.  Monday I fought through a brutal marathon pace workout.  It was ugly and took a lot out of me.  The rest of the week I just ran lots and lots of miles.  When Saturday rolled around and I'd finished my last run of the week I was like a kid in a candy store.

Saturday. Final run done. Initiate rest mode.

Smiling and giddy.  Let the laziness begin.  Sunday morning, I slept late.  Because it was my rest day.  Then I sat on my ass, ate a big breakfast and drank four cups of coffee.  Still resting.  After that, I took my dog for a nice long walk, something I frequently do on this day of rest.  A bit of mellow activity, even on rest days, does a body good.  Then I read for a few hours, books and magazines and such.  So restful.  I ate a nice big lunch.  Very relaxing.  I might have napped a bit.  That one's a no brainer.  And then swam with my kids for a bit.  Not super restful but fun.  Finally, around 2:00, we all went out for ice cream, something we often do in the summer, especially on the weekends.  And, of course, I indulged because my only agenda for the remainder of the afternoon was to rest.   It was right around here when I learned that my in-laws were taking my girls to see a movie and then for pizza afterwords.  That would be three full hours totally to myself.  The wheels immediately started spinning.  The next day I needed to run 21 miles, which would also take me about three hours.  But, first I had to drop my girls off at camp.  And that wouldn't be happening until 8:45am, which might as well be lunch time for me.  As you may already know, last week I had a little drama at drop off which delayed me from starting my run.  I wasn't expecting it to happen again this week because the older sister was now around but we all know anything is possible.  On top of that, both of the girls were on a waitlist to be moved from the day camp program to the sleep away program, which is what they were hoping for.  So, there was also a chance that I was going to have to drive suitcases back over to camp if one or both of them came off the list.  Do you see what I'm getting at here?  Yes, Sunday was my rest day and, up until that point, I'd milked it for all it's worth.  And no, it was not quite over yet.  There was more rest to be had.  But, the next morning could go in many different directions and I had little to no control over what might unfold.  So, yes, all signs were pointing to lacing up and hitting the road despite the fact that it was 4:00 in the afternoon.  On my rest day.  I wasn't 100% sold on the idea so I laid out the pros and cons.

Pros:

~ 3 uninterrupted hours to myself and thus a relatively stress free long run.

~ A hassle-free camp drop-off. Or, if not, no long run lingering while I dealt.

~ Wide open schedule for Monday w/ plenty of time to rest.

~ Good practice to run on tired (very tired) legs

Cons:

~ I was still tired from the past week of training.

~ I was not really in the mindset to run 21 miles.

~ I just ate ice cream.  And lots of other things that were not easy to digest.

~ It was still really hot out.

~ I was incredibly unmotivated.

Let's just see what happens.

Go or don't go.  What to do?  Finally, I decided I would just give it a shot.  I told myself that I would drive to the bike path and shuffle through a couple miles.  I would just see how my legs responded for a bit but still give myself the out if I wasn't feeling it.  Somewhere in the back of my head the decision to get it done was made.  I pretended to debate but the bottom line was this: I was going to bang out this 21 miler.  At 4:00.  On Sunday.  Which was also my rest day.  As I laced up I couldn't help but feel like I was borderline nuts.  But all things considered, I knew it was the right call.  And despite my lack of motivation, I also knew I would be really happy that I'd gotten it done come Monday morning.  So, off I went.  As predicted, I got past the three mile mark and just kept going.  It took me two hours and fifty eight minutes.  It was getting dark as I finished.  And I was toast.  But I was done.  We do weird things sometimes.  But sometimes the weird things are the most logical at that particular moment.  I suppose, when you really think about it, marathon training is anything but logical.  And, thankfully, there will always be time to rest.  At some point.

DONE.

Listen to this:

Peach - The Broods