Streaking

At some point toward the end of last week I decided it would be prudent to back off a bit after the weekend. Last time I had a day off was August 15, and even at that point I felt I'd been pushing the envelope a little bit. It was somewhat unexpected that I'd get 120 miles in the 13 days following. Part of the increase has come as life at the office has mellowed out. It's been about 2 years since I started work here in DC and I'm really just catching my breath as of this month. Band life has also calmed down, as The Family Hammer pushed through the spring and early summer to record an album and its members went on sabbatical shortly following the release party.

So I've had a streak of great running. I've gone from feeling the post-marathon staleness to watching it melt away, only to have some skeletons come back and haunt me (plantar fasciitis). But in general I'm making great progress, and I intend to reward myself this week with a little less work, and hopefully some more play.

Having said this, I still convinced myself that I needed to run this morning, even though I'd previously jotted down a big "zero" on the calendar for today. This can be a good or bad habit, depending on how you look at it. Good in that running more is better if you want to be good at running. But it can also be self-destructive, just as any habit can be. I've already made comparisons between running and other addictive lifestyles on this blog and elsewhere.

When it came down to the wire, I decided to negotiate with those sprites that I chase out the door so often and mix it up with some gym work. I did run a slow TM mile in my Vibrams, which I don't expect to make me a faster runner. But I wasn't looking to make aerobic gains today, and now I can continue my streak and feel a little relief from the pressure to take it easy.