This weekend I drove up to Ft. Collins to run with Nick Clark and his crew. Some might say it’s a long way to drive for a simple training run, but I really needed some company. These past 6 weeks I’ve really been struggling to get out the door. I emailed Nick and asked what he was up too, and if he wanted any company and he got back to me with this, “Going 18-20, 8am start.” He says, “This will be my first run of significant distance in a couple months, so don’t expect anything blazing.” Nick finishes off by saying, “Completion will be considered a success.” This was music to my ears.
The last month of training I’ve been going through that fitness curve, where every run feels like death and even the easiest day feels like hard work. I find myself wondering how I ever made it to the finish line of Leadville on these runs where I’m looking for any reason to stop and walk. Yes, I’m a big believer in taking time off to let the body and mind recover, but my problem is that when I’m not running, there’s a very high chance that all I’m doing is laying on the couch, watching TV and eating copious amounts of candy. For some reason I have no control. There was this one day, not too long ago, that I ate a cold McDonalds burger for breakfast, a Klondike bar, two old hot dogs, a frozen burrito for lunch and a Little Caesars pizza for dinner. On top of that I somehow ate half a 5 lb bag of Swedish Fish. I’m not proud of it.
Getting back into a training rhythm is always hard for me. I wake up each morning telling myself that today it’s all going to click-that I’ll feel great on my run and I’ll be fit again. Lately, about 2 hours later I walk in the door after my run, looking and feeling like the living dead. Looking so bad that not even my dogs want anything to do with me, but I keep telling myself to hang in there, tomorrow could be the day. As hard as it is to keep pushing through all those hard-never ending miles it is worth it because you do come out the other side, and it happened to me this week.
It’s funny, you get yourself ready for another slog out in the cold and it just happens. I had a little bounce in my step, the hills didn’t seem as large and I started enjoying ticking off the miles again. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not fit. I’ve just got over that bump. The point where the body has worked out that it’s time to get back to work and has gotten itself back into a rhythm-so far so good.
This week my mileage is up, I’m feeling good and I can’t complain. I think that forcing myself to drive and meet up with a group helped. I had a great run and felt like Nick gave me a good look around his backyard, Lowrey State Park. The best thing is I came away excited and refreshed.
We all have to face that first part of the “fitness curve” and it’s hard to get yourself out the door. But the people that can push themselves over the top are the ones that get to really enjoy that next level of running-when every run is an adventure. I think too many people start off with a bang, but give in right before they make that breakthrough. As many times as I’ve started from laying around with a bag of chips in my hands, all those long hard getting back into shape miles are worth it because there is nothing better than those runs when you feel good and your dropping the guy (girl) running next to you.