Good Days and Bad Days

I ran for an hour today before teaching step class. It was a good run. Not good as in fast, but I felt pretty good the whole time.

If you do any running, you understand that there are good and bad days, and often you cannot attribute this to any known cause. There are beautiful days when I am well-rested and go out for a run...only to feel like crap within a mile. Sometimes I feel like I could run forever. And I don't know why.

Having a bad run or a run I have to cut short used to upset me. Now I just go with it and understand there will be better days. I also give myself credit for going on a run even if it isn't as long or as fast as I wanted it to be. Even a short run or a run that turns into a walk is better than sitting on the couch.

Last year I had a bad run at the Chicago Half Marathon. The funny thing was that my time wasn't really much slower than I expected. It wasn't fast for me, but it wasn't horrible. Yet, in my mind, I remember it as an awful run. At mile 3, I was thinking about how I was going to get through it. I did get through it. I did lots of looking at my GPS, thinking about how I was ONLY at mile 5, ONLY at mile 8, ONLY at mile 9. I just didn't have it. And it didn't have to do with being slow. It just wasn't that much fun. I usually like to run, and that day I didn't like to run.

If you are just starting to run for the first time or after a hiatus, don't get down about the bad days. You won't always feel great, and that's just part of it. Having a bad day doesn't mean you should panic because your fitness level isn't where you thought it was. Maybe it just means your body needs an easy or recovery day. You can't be at the top of your game all the time.

Today my run was on the trails in Cedar Falls. I am fortunate that the community I live in makes biking/running/walking/nature trails a priority. Many of my routes follow the river, which is nice. And I don't have to worry about traffic--just cyclists who don't let me know they are coming and startle me as they pass. Most of the people I pass out on the trails, whether they are on foot or bike, are friendly and conscientious. I would enjoy a few more drinking fountains, but you can't have everything, and I only really care about that when I am running more than 8-9 miles in the summer. Oh, and more restrooms would be good, too.

We are still watching little Buttons. She is a cute thing. She's been a good playmate for Murphy and Gus-Gus, although she has more energy than both of them put together. Most of her time is spent searching for a playmate. If Murphy doesn't want to play, she tries Gus. If Gus doesn't want to play, she tries Karl. Then the cats. Then Bill and me. It's so cute. She just wants someone, anyone, to play with.