Marathon Morning

I did a marathon yesterday morning. Okay, so most of it was on a bike, but still, it felt like an accomplishment. According to mapmyrun.com (sorry, Dan, your "new favorite" route calculator was not all that user-friendly), my 89 minute cycle was 23.2 miles. I followed with a 3 mile trail run. There ya go, marathon in the morning.

Which brings me to today. I had scheduled a 5 miles tempo run, but as I was warming up, I decided that I just wasn't into a 5 mile tempo run today. I'm tired, my legs felt heavy, and I didn't feel like if I did the tempo it would be quality. I guess that can be expected after a triathlon Sunday, an interval workout on the track Tuesday and the workout I just described yesterday. The nice thing is, I'm finally at a point in my life when I can listen to my body when it tells me to stop. I ran on a team for nine years, and though you can tell the coach "I'm tired," you usually end up doing the workout anyway. Admittedly, this led to a couple injuries for me in college. It's hard to describe the internal battle that I went through this morning when deciding whether to continue my workout. Part of me said "you have to" because the workout was scheduled, it was "set in stone." But really, it's not set in stone. I think every athlete can do him or herself a favor by actually tuning into what the body is telling you. Rest when your body says "rest" and you will be able to go a lot farther in the long run because you won't be sidelined by injury.

Tell me it's okay I bailed on this workout!