Patience Versus Temptation

Seven days of running 8 hilly miles.  In the books.  Completed. Goal attained.  I purposely didn't give any thought to what I'd do today.  Ok, maybe a little thought.  Eight days of 8 miles was tempting.  Listening to my body should take priority.  So, I waited until I got up this morning.  Another solid night's sleep, actually more restful than the night before, but still with some signals that my body needs to recover.  Since recovery is often the most important workout, as I write this, I'm still not quite decided.  I have a little bit of soreness this morning.  It's probably due to the fact that I actually ran yesterday's seventh straight day of running harder than any of the preceding six days.  That included a hard run mile downhill at the end of my run, which will always add some stress to the legs.  Still, considering what I've just accomplished, I feel pretty good this morning.

While 8 miles at one time isn't a big deal, I'd never run 8 miles a day for seven straight days before.  Now I have.  That also means that I ran 56 miles for the week.  That's one of my highest mileage weeks in a long time.  There was a time over twenty years ago, when I was running marathons, that I got my mileage up to about fifty miles a week.  Still, if I look back at my running logs for the past decade, I'm pretty sure that I won't find more than this except for a few times.  I've got my running legs back, which mean that there's no reason to tempt fate.  I certainly don't want any injuries.

I also have some work to catch up on, that admittedly, my fatigue the past week got in the way of.  There's always a balance, and I'm good at ignoring the fact that there are days that I just don't want to think because I'm tired.  This past week was a struggle in that regard.  A day of rest will be good for me.  Patience will beat out temptation and allow my body at least one day of recovery.