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February 23, 2009

A case of the Mondays...

Mondays suck, and everyone knows it...except people that work irregular days, or on the weekend. Then, whatever day you start work sucks. But Mondays suck, and almost as much as the day after a vacation. When the two are combined, all hell can break loose. You're probably going to be irritable and tired.

Amby Burfoot, the 1968 Boston Marathon winner and editor for Runner's World, says that the best day for a run is on a day where you absolutely, positively, have zero motivation...especialy in regards to running. Run on days you don't want to has become a mantra since the end of the 2007-2008 school year. Today was one of those days...a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Some things went haywire, as they often do when you return to school after some time away. Plus, running errands never seems to go the way it is supposed to. Frustration set in.

In fact, the most valuable part of the day was discussing my long term running plans with the cross country/distance coach from our track team. I learned to love running in the 3 years I was the distance coach. But I am definitely much better suited to working with sprinters as I do now. He knows running, and discussed how he plans to train his runners for the rest of the year. The weekly plan and goals seemed do-able, if modified. In fact, they corresponded a lot with the early part of this marathon training plan I've been looking at.

That's why, when, faced with a case of the Mondays, and a generally uninspiring day, I knew that, despite my grim outlook, it was the day I had to run. It was also 28 degrees at 3:00 pm, so that meant I would be running at the gym. No biggy, as I decided it was a good day to start the long running process, and add some mileage. Fifty eight minutes later, I had gone 6.3 miles (Roughly 6.5 mph...a great clip, especially in training).

Running is great. It lets you clear you mind. All the crap from the day goes away. Sure, there may be a pain in your knee, or a blister forming, but that's great pain...unless it's excruciating. So there I was, washing the day away, running for a symbolic 58 minutes. Not bad. Great mileage. Huge workout. 1153 calories burned in 65 total minutes on the treadmill...this has to have a positive impact on my weight and the ability to run distances. If I continue, the running can only get easier and the weight can only continue to go away. That run turned a case of the Mondays into an overall good day.

Now...I just wish I could get my hamstrings to EVER loosen up.

1 comments:

marmie February 23, 2009 at 10:53 PM  

okay, now I'm officially jealous and feeling like a wimp. I also had a case of the mondays, a meeting afterschool, and had planned to run-but at 5 pm with temps of less than 28 degrees and winds making it feel even colder, I threw in the towel and worked in my classrooom and took the day off.
tomorrow I must run 3.5 miles and if possible, since I was a slouch today I'll run even further.
but yeah for you! I'm IMPRESSED. to do all that on the treadmill is AWESOME!!!

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