Today Was an Off Day
I hereby declare today to be an Off-Day. I did so at approximately 5:06pm while on my way home from work. Hmm... I worked on an off-day? Yep, I sure did. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. You see, there's a difference between an 'off-day' and a 'day off' - the former is about exercise/working out and the latter is about work, traditional money-making work. Generally speaking, I get two days off a week. Off-days, however, are a different story.
In my previous competitive distance runner incarnation, I never, if ever, took an off day. I ran AND stationary biked every day. When I say 'every day', I mean every day. When I say, 'AND' I mean AND, as in both. On the same day, every day (I warmed for all my morning runs - long runs, short runs, and races -with an hour on the bike. I often biked again in the evening to 'cool down' from the day). This included holidays, sick days, 'days off', rainy days, snowy days, hot days, crampy days (of course once I got going those were very few and far between), tooth achy days, test days (I was a grad student at the time), race days, tired days, exhausted days, and days when I just didn't wanna. Four times a week I ran twice a day (morning and afternoon/evening) and twice a week I ran long (14+ miles).
I got up well before sunrise and by the time I got to school, I'd done more exercise than most normal adults do in a week. After school, I started the process all over again. I didn't give myself a choice. I was highly anorexic and needed to burn calories. Oh, I also needed to improve my 10k PR and train for longer races. I was morbidly dedicated. I hesitate to say that I was 'addicted' to exercise. I think I was more addicted to burning calories than anything. Running and biking for hours and hours every day accomplised a lot of that.
I was young, but monstrously over-trained. I endured countless over-use injuries that would have put many athletes on the couch for extended periods. I ran through mine. And funny, it almost always worked. I suffered through tendonities in my left ankle, then as that got better, I'd get plantar fascitis in my right foot. Soon enough that would transition to plantar fascitis in my left foot which would eventually become tendonitis in my right ankle. It was like an injury merry-go-round. One would cure and another would crop up. Thankfully, I seldom had two issues going at once.
Assuredly, I was probably some kind of freak of nature; I don't think the human body is intended to work like that. I'm not expecting it to this go-round. And thus the reason for my 'off-day' today. I'm newly back to running and twenty years older. What I didn't mention above was my final over-use injury - the stress fracture that appeared in my right tibia at Mile 16 of the Wichita Marathon in 1993. After finishing the last ten miles (and winning the race), I was out for nearly four months. I ran in the pool and continued to bike, but it was no fun. I don't want that to happen again, so I'm trying to practice sanity this time around. I've started doing the occasional two-a-day, but I listen to my body and end up taking just about every fifth day off.
On my way home from work today, as was trying to decide if I wanted to run at the gym (in air conditioned comfort) or ride my Spin bike in the garage, something in me just said, 'Neither'. I counted back to my last day off (Wednesday) and contemplated what I'd done over the past four days - one two-a-day, a good run at the gym, a track/speed workout, and a Spin ride. Good enough for this forty-two year old body that's just re-getting used to the brutality of endurance training. I plan to increase distances and intensity as I become more fit. What I didn't understand in my anorexic youth was the benefit of rest, the so-called 'off day'.
These days, I'm enjoying myself more than I ever did before. I embrace my workouts and repeatedly thank God for my gifts. Not every woman my age can do what I do and I want to keep doing it indefinitely. Back in grad school, I interviewed a seventy-two year old ultra-marathoner named Helen Klein. She ran her first marathon in her forties and never stopped. She is who I aspire to be. I want enduring endurance like she had. It doesn't mean I'm not going to run through a few niggling injuries, but it does mean that I'm going to listen to my body and 'think with my pain' a lot more than I used to. Today would have been my fifth day in a row and I was just tired enough to rationalize the benefit of an off-day. As far as I know, no one has ever died from taking one. And maybe, just maybe, I'll run better tomorrow morning because of it.
In my previous competitive distance runner incarnation, I never, if ever, took an off day. I ran AND stationary biked every day. When I say 'every day', I mean every day. When I say, 'AND' I mean AND, as in both. On the same day, every day (I warmed for all my morning runs - long runs, short runs, and races -with an hour on the bike. I often biked again in the evening to 'cool down' from the day). This included holidays, sick days, 'days off', rainy days, snowy days, hot days, crampy days (of course once I got going those were very few and far between), tooth achy days, test days (I was a grad student at the time), race days, tired days, exhausted days, and days when I just didn't wanna. Four times a week I ran twice a day (morning and afternoon/evening) and twice a week I ran long (14+ miles).
I got up well before sunrise and by the time I got to school, I'd done more exercise than most normal adults do in a week. After school, I started the process all over again. I didn't give myself a choice. I was highly anorexic and needed to burn calories. Oh, I also needed to improve my 10k PR and train for longer races. I was morbidly dedicated. I hesitate to say that I was 'addicted' to exercise. I think I was more addicted to burning calories than anything. Running and biking for hours and hours every day accomplised a lot of that.
I was young, but monstrously over-trained. I endured countless over-use injuries that would have put many athletes on the couch for extended periods. I ran through mine. And funny, it almost always worked. I suffered through tendonities in my left ankle, then as that got better, I'd get plantar fascitis in my right foot. Soon enough that would transition to plantar fascitis in my left foot which would eventually become tendonitis in my right ankle. It was like an injury merry-go-round. One would cure and another would crop up. Thankfully, I seldom had two issues going at once.
Assuredly, I was probably some kind of freak of nature; I don't think the human body is intended to work like that. I'm not expecting it to this go-round. And thus the reason for my 'off-day' today. I'm newly back to running and twenty years older. What I didn't mention above was my final over-use injury - the stress fracture that appeared in my right tibia at Mile 16 of the Wichita Marathon in 1993. After finishing the last ten miles (and winning the race), I was out for nearly four months. I ran in the pool and continued to bike, but it was no fun. I don't want that to happen again, so I'm trying to practice sanity this time around. I've started doing the occasional two-a-day, but I listen to my body and end up taking just about every fifth day off.
On my way home from work today, as was trying to decide if I wanted to run at the gym (in air conditioned comfort) or ride my Spin bike in the garage, something in me just said, 'Neither'. I counted back to my last day off (Wednesday) and contemplated what I'd done over the past four days - one two-a-day, a good run at the gym, a track/speed workout, and a Spin ride. Good enough for this forty-two year old body that's just re-getting used to the brutality of endurance training. I plan to increase distances and intensity as I become more fit. What I didn't understand in my anorexic youth was the benefit of rest, the so-called 'off day'.
These days, I'm enjoying myself more than I ever did before. I embrace my workouts and repeatedly thank God for my gifts. Not every woman my age can do what I do and I want to keep doing it indefinitely. Back in grad school, I interviewed a seventy-two year old ultra-marathoner named Helen Klein. She ran her first marathon in her forties and never stopped. She is who I aspire to be. I want enduring endurance like she had. It doesn't mean I'm not going to run through a few niggling injuries, but it does mean that I'm going to listen to my body and 'think with my pain' a lot more than I used to. Today would have been my fifth day in a row and I was just tired enough to rationalize the benefit of an off-day. As far as I know, no one has ever died from taking one. And maybe, just maybe, I'll run better tomorrow morning because of it.
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