it’s march 2nd and the weather seems like more like february. i don’t like february. it’s dark and dismal. also, running is really challenging–getting out of bed to run in the teens and pelting snow on slippery sidewalks. while in some respects it makes me feel hardcore to do this, it’s not…. fun. and now that i have written that, i need to tell myself, like i tell my kids on at least a weekly basis, life isn’t always about fun, probably shouldn’t always be about fun. it’s the hard unfun stuff that makes us grow and strengthens our character.

(i wonder though, does running in miserable conditions actually build character?)

so this morning it is in the low 20s, windy (the one thing i will remember about winter 2013) and snowy. but guess what. i’m not running in this today. brian is, and i’m glad. he has been battling knee pain in our quest to train for a 30k, and i’ve been waiting for him to have a breakthrough. maybe today is the day. i’m not running because a) i hurt my achilles last week and am giving it a good rest, and b) i’m sick. i’m kind of glad these two things happened at once. maybe that means the last 5 weeks i have to train will be awesome.

but after establishing a habit of running 5 days a week and being super disciplined about it for 4 weeks (74 miles and more than 14 hours of running later), i’m struggling this week with the inactivity. i’m sad and lethargic and unmotivated to do other workouts. i haven’t been getting up in the morning because nothing but running gets me out of bed early. while i know this is a good rest for me to have, and at a good time too since it’s about halfway to the race, i’m just sad. i can’t wait to get back into it, and i hope that i can.

the question is, what is this achilles tendon going to do? is it just tired and strained because of all the hills i have been running, or did i injure it last week when i fell down the steps (another story, another time) last friday? if it’s just tiredness, i’m pretty sure rest will do it good, and i’ll be able to jump back into running soon. if it’s an injury though…. it might take an even longer rest, and i might not be able to just jump right back in. i may not be able to run a 30k in april.

now i know how brian has been feeling these past few weeks. and i also know this… i really do love running. to be totally cliché, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. good to know. this has been my goal, to fall in love with running.

in an effort to embrace the rest time that i have and to get rid of this cold, today i woke up at 9 or so. i didn’t shower. i didn’t put on running clothes. i bundled up in a sweatshirt and my favorite green scarf, and me and my runny nose went downstairs to eat brownies for breakfast. character building? well….. fun? absolutely. and yummy. i’m feeling better already.

(wait! before you judge my decision, go look at the brownie recipe in the next post!)

Posted on March 2nd, 2013