The smartest decision is often the toughest to make

I've become a stickler for my running schedule.  I don't vary from it - and the results have been great.

• Tuesday - speed work
• Wednesday - recovery 3 miles
• Thursday - 3 to 5 miles at a moderate pace
• Friday - rest
• Saturday - long run
• Sunday - about 6 miles to work out the long run soreness
• Monday - rest & recover

After dealing with an oddly sore knee during my warm-up for speed work on Tuesday (it was actually making me limp as I jogged), and it returning for the first part of my recovery run yesterday (with a painful reminder at the end that made me yelp), I had to make a tough decision this morning...


I decided to skip my typical Thursday training run.



Mind you, this took some serious consideration and convincing, and even had to make Hubby tell me that I shouldn't go out, that it was better to let the knee rest an extra day so that I am ready for a quality 17 mile training run, which we have scheduled for Saturday morning.


Often, these kinds of decisions are the hardest ones for a runner to make.  And most times, we end up making the wrong decision - to push through and go out anyway, despite our bodies telling us to back off.  I've gone that route on more than one occasion, as has Hubby... and we've battled worse injuries because of it.

As hard as it's been, we've recently been forcing ourselves to listen a little more closely and acknowledge when our bodies say then need that extra day of rest.  I think we are better off for it (as neither of us has had to make a trip to the sports med doc since we started our new training plan).  Sometimes it takes me asking him if I should rest, or him asking me.  That seems to help the process - having someone to bounce it off of.  As athletes, we can't always rely on our own rationalization.



So my thought for the day - if something aches and feels like it could possibly be an injury coming on, have that conversation with yourself - even better, bounce it off one of your running friends before heading out to the road that day.  The extra training doesn't do any good if it sidelines you for the goal race.