I’ve been in a bit of a lull with my running since my last adventure. Most days have been the bare minimum to keep my run streak going (i.e. 1 mile). Physically, I felt halfway decent after a couple days. My legs came back quicker than my feet, which were sore for most of a week. While my Gamin biometric stats are still on the low side (my body battery would probably be hitting negative values if that was a thing), I don’t really notice that day to day. I’m not extra tired or achy and haven’t come down with any of the various colds that are boomeranging around out there. I feel like I’m back to 100% physically.
Mentally though is another thing. My alarm goes off for me to get up and get my normal weekday 7 miler in, however I’ve been consistently hitting the snooze button. Starting out it was a badge of pride that I never hit the snooze button on my alarm. Ultrarunners gotta be tough, right? I always got my runs in no matter how I felt or whatever the weather was outside. That’s changed over the past 5-6 years though. Now I’m more than willing to cut back my volume when my motivation wanes. I view this as my body subconsciously telling me I’m not 100% no matter what it’s consciously telling me.
My longevity in the sport helps me lean into these breaks. I’ve got enough experience and running base at this point that an extra 50-75 miles in any given month isn’t really going to do much for me. Even though I’m now signed up for Devil Dog in early December, my low mileage isn’t stressing me in the least. I’m pretty sure I could stack six straight weeks at 10-20 miles and still get through the race fine. Maybe a little slower that prior years, but no risk of missing a cutoff. I’m half tempted to try it just from an experimentation standpoint. But only half tempted.
If history repeats, I’ll probably be back to normal before this post goes live. Happy trails!