A Much Needed Rest

Well, I’m back. And in more ways than one.

I took the last two weeks off of running. A month ago, I twisted my ankle running on, of all things, a paved bike path. The following week, I woke up one morning, hoping to go for an easy run, and found that I could hardly walk from my bedroom to my bathroom due to a sharp pain in my fourth metatarsal.

This, combined with a general listlessness, suggested that, after a summer of hard running and harder races, I should maybe take a little time off and let my body catch up a little bit. This I duly did, and it seems in general to have done what I hoped. If nothing else, I am now so anxious to run each day that there are times I find it difficult to sit at my desk all day at work.

Back, now, to before I decided to take time off. I had already been having a bit of trouble in early September keeping my running consistent. After Pikes, I did not recover as quickly or as well as I would have hoped. Combine that with trying to find a new place to live, and you have a recipe for poor running. Given that I had intended to run a marathon in Moab in early November, I was rather disappointed with this.

I have since dropped the plans to do the marathon, but enough of my friends are going that I may yet register for the half (expensive as it is) , and try to simply enjoy myself on what looks to be an awesome course.

We shall see.

Despite the time off, and the inconsistent running through September, I am actually feeling good about my fitness. The last run before I took my time off, a 12 mile jaunt up Green and Flagstaff after work on a random Wednesday night, I set a new PR up green of 37:31, despite feeling like I was not trying that hard. This replaces my prior PR, set a week and a half before, of 38:28.

Jumping forward again to the present, I woke up this morning, in my new house (rented, not bought), walked out to my car, and found about a quarter inch of snow covering the grass. This is the first snow of the year, and accompanies a drastic drop in the temperature around here. From Wednesday’s high of 85, it dropped to a high of 45 yesterday. While that might be discouraging for some, it gets my blood flowing, and I’m already planning a good long run up in the James Peak area tomorrow.

The high down in Boulder is below 40, so we shall see what it’s like up there. This will likely necessitate the first donning of my tights this year.