Resolution

To say that I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions would be quite the understatement but this year I'm going against my own beliefs and came up with a resolution, albeit a few days late:

Run less

Yup, pretty much the opposite of what most people would resolve, which is why I'm pretty happy with it after all.

It didn't come quite out of the blue. For the last 4 years I have been feeling less and less like a runner almost with each passing day - well, obviously there are better days sprinkled in between, but overall the decline has been rather alarming, not just in my performances but in the way running has felt. I just can't run properly any more, and it is getting worse.

I took 3 days off over Christmas because I had a slight head cold, nothing serious, and I did a few miles when I got back on my feet, and I felt absolutely awful. It hasn't gotten much better since. I ran 10 miles at some point, very slowly, and still felt beaten up for a day or two afterwards. I tried a long-ish run on Sunday, still nothing amazing at maybe 15 miles, and at mile 5 I was already struggling and had to cut it short.

It feels like overtraining, though where from I'm not sure because I swear I haven't done much training in the last few weeks and months - I used to do twice that and felt good! Anyway, it had been nagging at me for quite some time anyway, I need a break from running.

It's not as easy as it seems. I use running for mental health benefits at least as much as for physical improvement and I need my exercise, literally. I'll try and do more cycling and see if that does the trick, and the odd run every now and then hopefully won't do any harm.

Ah fuck, I have a 50k in 5 weeks. I even skipped a trip to Seattle for it!

Ah well. Happy New Year!