Pacing Myself

I dreamt last night that I was helping a bunch of physicians with their billing codes.  Not sure where that came from or why, but I was really engaged in the details of it. It's been a long time since I've even thought about such things.  While I've been trying to "power down" on the weekends, there's once again too much going on right now. There are too many opportunities to let a day go by without working, though someone did comment that I am the busiest "semi-retired" person that they know.  Touche. Not sure I am really good at pacing myself when it comes to life.

I also got in a run yesterday.  I've backed off running over the last few weeks due to some discomfort in my lower left leg.  I absolutely don't want to end up with a stress fracture, and that's what it was beginning to feel like it might be.  I'm still not sure, so I'll be careful.  I've been focused since June on running volume and not speed, but yesterday, I allowed myself the luxury of running fast.  In fact, after warming up for a couple of miles, I ran the first mile of what is normally my 8 mile route in a personal best time of 7:30. Turns out that was nearly 30 seconds faster than any time I've run that mile in.  I needed to be a little careful, as the first quarter mile is downhill, and then the rest is all uphill.  Pacing. For a couple of reasons.  First, running the first part too fast might have put too much stress on my leg, downhill running can do that.  Second, if I went out too fast, I wouldn't have what was necessary for the end of the mile.

Running 3/4 of a mile uphill hard felt good, it also was hard.  Running a mile hard was something that I felt like doing, although I didn't want to put too much stress on myself. My allergies have been acting up this week, which is usually a sign of fatigue.  This time my fatigue hasn't been from training, it's been from work and lack of sleep.  Pacing.

This past week I've gotten in the habit of starting my day with my blog and then spending some ritualistic time getting myself focused on myself.  I'm trying not to get either too caught up or wound up before the day begins.  I want to begin the the balanced, only that way will I be able to truly pace myself.