“Just one of those days.”

How many of these have you had? Where your run didn’t turn out as well as you had planned. Sometimes it’s circumstantial and other times you can’t explain it. It just happens. I’ve had my fair share of these days and today I got smacked it the face pretty hard – and I should have seen it coming. In fact, I was in denial and thought I could overcome it – I was wrong.

8 1/2 mile trail run. That’s it. I’ve done it before and I love the route. It’s the one route that I will actually loose sleep over the night before (you’ve seen the photos). Last night was no different, except for the fact that it wasn’t the run that kept me up all night (and morning).

I’m a HUGE West Wing fan. I forgot how good that show was until I found Bravo running it twice a day. Since it airs early in the morning, I have my DVR set to record each episode. Usually, I’ll find time every night to watch the latest conflicts of the Jud Bartlett administration and still make it to bed before midnight. This week, I did not. The allure of 10 episodes waiting for me was just way too much. I kept telling myself, “one more and it’s off to bed” but one turned into five and then into all ten (the episodes were Season 7 – the last year it aired). 4:30 a.m. came before I knew it. I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to sleep and just head out the door. Great plan…on paper anyway.

8:30 a.m. I found myself in the same position I had rolled over to 4 hours before. Disgusted with myself, I vowed to eat breakfast with the family and head out at 10. No problem. Oh wait…this is June in Las Vegas!!! Today’s high was 103 degrees and by 10 a.m. it was already pushing 90. No problem. Done it before too. I filled up my CamelBak and head out to the trail.

You know when it’s not there. I tried to bang through it – I really did. When I got to 2 1/2 miles up in the foothills I stopped and assessed my situation. I had nothing in the tank. Sweat was already in my eyes and 90 degrees was a distant memory. So, instead of making this run miserable, I made the decision to head back – 3 1/2 miles short. By the time I got back home, I knew I had made the right choice. While the run wasn’t what I wanted, I listened to my body and my circumstances and made the rational choice.

We all try to hit our goals. We all try and be diligent and committed to our craft/hobby/sport/job. We all need to remind ourselves that sometimes it’s just not there. If you push it, you might regret it and it could lead to injuries and miserable experiences. My solution is to take a page from baseball – it may not have rained – but tomorrow I’ve got a makeup game to play.

Tags: Bravo, CamelBak, DVR, Jud Bartlett, Las Vegas, Season 7, The West Wing

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Runs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.