Choosing the Rest Day

This week has been hectic to say the least. I started both my spring semester and my internship at Corrigan Sports (they are in charge of the Oakland Running Festival and the Baltimore Running Festival). While I didn't have that much actually going on I also have been working on moving back in to my apartment. With each new semester brings a new schedule to figure out and adjust to, which has proven to be the most stressful. The weather this week didn't make things any easier. Monday was icy, Tuesday a heat wave and sunny, Wednesday stormy, Thursday windy, and Friday windy and snowy. Tuesday was the only day this week that was ideal, or even normal, for training. The only downside was that the combo of ice/rain on Monday and warm temps on Tuesday made the trails a complete mud pit.

Due to the weather I ended up switching around some of my workouts, which only proved to add more stress to my week. I know this may not sound like an incredibly stressful week to many but I don't do well with change and like to stick to my routines. Despite not having much actual work this week I've been busy cleaning, unpacking, and getting organized for the semester. I normally plan for the first week of the semester to be a rest week so I don't have to worry about a heavy load of workouts on top of everything else. I spent a good deal of time (way too much time) this week trying to figure out when to fit in workouts in my schedule that worked with the weather.

Lucky for me I have off on Friday's. I slept in yesterday and woke up to a light dusting of snow. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do my long run on Friday or Saturday but decided on Friday since I was meeting my mom for some stuff I left at home and we were meeting right near one of my favorite places to run. I ended up leaving my Garmin at my apartment on accident so I had to use the mile markers on the trail and my basic sports watch. I figured I went about 8.55 miles in 75 minutes. This run was not easy but it was a really great run. I pushed myself the whole time and was spent by the end.

Compression sleeves, legs up, sweet rest day

I had every intention of doing my scheduled run today but after almost two weeks with no rest day and 5 straight days of new semester stress I opted for the rest day. Mentally and physically I am exhausted. I had some heel pain and shin pain throughout the week that both only lasted one day and don't seem to be a problem. Still, I don't want to push it. Even on the days when I don't want to run I can normally find a way to motivate myself to get out there. Today though I truly don't want to. It is important to me to like training for events and not dread my runs. If taking an unplanned rest day is necessary to keep me motivated and enjoying training then it is not a lost day.