No Snoozing

Today was the first real day “back” at running. While I ran a few miles yesterday, I had the day off work. So, today was the restart of the routine. For the record, my mind is all for running again, but my body is protesting.

My body didn’t want to get out of bed, and it certainly wasn’t very interested in running. As always, the fact that I was meeting someone to run with made all the difference. Otherwise, I am certain the snooze button would have been hit a few more times, and I would have enjoyed a nice bowl of cereal in front of the tv.

I guess it is easy for the mind to be all into the running — what does it have to do? It is the body that takes the brunt of the miles and does the hard work. And now that it’s the end of the day, I can certainly still feel every one of the six miles I ran. All those muscles that I thought were nice and recovered from the marathon are reminding me that I have more work left to do. Lots of aches and pains in unsual spots.

Got to listen to your body, that is one of the training principles I believe in. And more recovery is fine. At this point there are no races in the immediate future. Just some slow easy days trying to get the body back to the point where it wants to be back running.

But, I’m not complaining (or protesting) about it, because there is something strangely rewarding about the post-marathon feeling where the miles are tough and the body aches. Guess it is a few things. One, the fact that this too shall pass. Two, you don’t get to this place of feeling so bad without a lot of really hard work.