Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Season of Laziness

Today I was supposed to run - but, I didn't. No, I wasn't injured or sick. I took 10 paces out the door this morning and said, "forget it." Kendra and I then went on an unplanned trip to Philly (note: the Eastern State Penitentary is more interesting than Alcatraz) - we came home I put on my running clothes and again took 10 steps out the door and just didn't feel it. I went to the fridge, grabbed a beer and chilled. I actually felt a slight twinge of guilt - but, then I thought - to everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season - and the season right now is laziness.

I remember that my college coach used to say that the best runners are lazy. Not lazy in relation to a lot of people - but, they are able to just chill. Runners who are always on the go rarely perform well. The body needs rest. Jim Adams likes to tell a story about an area runner who ran his best race the week after coming down with the flu. The forced bed rest had actually been good for him - of course when he felt better he started over training again and he never ran quite as fast.

Three weeks ago I ran the Boston Marathon - but, more importantly I ended a 24 week training cycle that was unlike anything I've put myself through in my life. By June I'll be running track workouts and from the end of June until the end of September I'll be running 70-90 miles a week, with three hard days (or two hard days & a race) per week. Now is the season of laziness.

Last Week

Monday: 7 miles
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: 8 miles
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: 0 miles
Saturday: 10 miles
Sunday: 0 miles
Total: 33 miles

This Week

Monday: 7 miles
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday: 0 miles
Friday: 5 miles
Saturday: 13 miles
Sunday: 6 miles
Total: 45 miles

2 comments:

RM said...

About time!

I'm surprised you've even got any structure at all. I'd go for whatever distance runs felt good with no mileage goals. But that's just me.

How was Eastern State Pen? I've seen it on TV before on some haunted place show. Bryan and Emily have been trying to make it there for a while.

Ben said...

Eastern State Pen was awesome. It looks like an old european castle from the outside with 50 foot high stone walls - except it's in the middle of Philly neighborhood.

The inside is pretty creepy - you can see why people think that it's haunted. And they have tons of information - there is an audio tour hosted by steve buscemi - plus about 2 more hours of historical information from former prisoners, guards, and historians.

as for planning my runs right now - I'm just afraid that without any structure I'll get way out of shape like I did after NYC.