When I started running a few years ago I quickly realized that running, for me anyways, is more than just about getting an amazing cardio workout. It took only one trail run to realize that I get a stress reliever, a mental workout, an escape from reality and a peaceful inner feeling all rolled up into one. It's something that is impossible to explain to people and although I've met hundreds of runners, there's only a few that I've met who truly understand what I'm talking about.
This is probably why I have such a love/hate relationship with races. On the one hand I love the race day experience but what I hate is the fact that I have to stop running for a few days prior to the race.
Whenever I'm not running it's something that I'm constantly thinking about and when I see someone running on the street, especially if it's at a time when I'm not supposed to be running, all I want to do is lace up my shoes and hit the pavement.
If I'm doing a Marathon (26.2 Miles/42 KM's)or Ultra Marathon (50 KM's) I usually take 3 days off before my race. With shorter races such as the one I'm doing on Sunday (10 Miles/16 KM's) I take at least 2 and sometimes 3 days off.
I decided to go for a shorter run today which leaves me 2 days of rest before Sunday. I probably could have used the extra day of rest, especially with my Plantar Fasciitis still not completely healed, but I needed to run today.
As for the next two days? Well, I'll be missing my running but I'll use my time to work on the mental aspect of the race. I'll be doing lots of mental imagery and trying to figure out what songs to put on my mp3 player to motivate me.
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