Interval: I'm... not running?
A much needed week off
“Are you running while you’re down there?”
A few people have asked me that question ahead of my trip to Mexico. A trip of a lifetime, I’ll be heading there with Riss, my six best friends, and their spouses. 14 of us, at the same resort, for darn near a week. We booked it last June, and our group text has had a daily countdown in the title, going back to the fall, at least. I can’t wait.
“Are you going to run?” “What are you going to do?” “You’re not going to spend that much time running, are you?”
I usually shrug my shoulders. “I’m going to try not to run… much,” I tell them. And as I make my way down there this morning, I’m going to hold myself to that. Tomorrow marks three weeks until the Lincoln Half Marathon — race day is 22 days away. I would love to set another PR. Which means besting 1:33:28.
But I also want to enjoy Mexico. I want to enjoy the week off. I want to enjoy time with my best friends.
Since 2020, the longest I’ve gone without running is a week and a half, and I have done that twice1. Since 2020, the longest I’ve gone without working out is… I don’t know, a day or two?
I wrote previously about the concern regarding losing fitness. I’m frightened of it. Is that rational? No. I’m not going to lose everything in a week. Do I still have worries? Yes. Am I going to flat out miss my normal amount of running? Absolutely. But the week off will be good for me.
So what will I do in another country, with 13 people I love, a few weeks out from a race? I have decided I will run two times. That’s it. I only have two sets of running outfits. I’m going to force myself to take (most of) the week off. I’ll run a couple times, go for some walks, and try my best to truly relax for the first time since the pandemic began. Godspeed.
Cool down:
The last month seems to have caught up with me. Being sick, packing, moving, unpacking, and then packing again for the trip, on top of hitting most of my training runs, has been a lot. My body feels like it needs a break. 95% sure I just typed that out to (again) convince myself it’s ok to take a few days off from working out.
I ran ten miles on Friday. Close to five miles in is a porta potty, and duty called. Rounded the corner where it was and… I didn’t see it. “What in the world?” I thought to myself. And then I saw it — it had blown over into a tree. Thankfully it wasn’t tipped all the way over, so it was easy to push it back upright. This wind is ridiculous and I’m ready for some calm days in Omaha!
Every time I run in a race, I hope to go in with some sort of new2 outfit, at the very least new shorts. Picked up two pairs of shorts this week and I think I have both the half and full marathon getup (the bottoms at least) for 2022. Bring ‘em on.
Thanks for reading. Happy (not) running!
Being in quarantine sucked.
New to the race, at least. Don’t wanna go out there in shorts I’ve already in a previous race. But I also am sure to always run in something I have worn at least once!