Such as:
- Packing, moving, and unpacking for 2.5 days will wreck your body and make you useless in every way possible.
- Said moving activities are incompatible with training for a marathon, in that even if your body is willing, your mind is weak. Decision fatigue is real!
- Not sleeping well for the 2 weeks leading up to moving only adds to the wreckage.
- Moving anxiety + decision fatigue + not sleeping + horrible eating = scrapping my long run for the week.
The original plan was to run 16 miles this morning (Sunday). I figured I’d be recovered from the move by then, and it would be nice to close out Oakland Marathon training with a strong long run. However, as I was scrubbing the stovetop in our Oakland apartment, I did a quick inventory of my body and realized that, no, 16 miles would most certainly not be happening the next morning. The only thing keeping me in the game was my pride/OCD. Fortunately, the wise voice in the back of my head told me that it would be a junky, horrible slog of 16 miles if I went through with it. The Gypsy Runner also thought it was a bad idea to run long, asking what difference could it really make at this point, 2 weeks before the marathon? It was the wise decision. I stayed up past my pre-long run bedtime chatting with friends in our new place, drank a couple of beers, and went to sleep without the anxiety of having to wake up early (on Daylight Savings Day, no less) to eat a pre-run breakfast. Plus, we had plans to go to our friends’ engagement party in the early afternoon, which would only add to the stress of finishing my run by a certain time.
So yeah, sometimes it’s better to take a step back, look at the whole picture, and make the best decision — not just as a runner, but as a person. It’s an incredibly obvious thing to note, but it’s often too easy to get wrapped up in running goals and plans and forget about the bigger picture.
p.s. I ran Tues and Thurs this week, for a total of 18.6 miles. Both runs went pretty well.
p.p.s. I’m keeping this short and sweet since AT&T totally screwed up our internet installation (long story, but I’m very annoyed about the whole thing). Thanks R & C for letting us borrow your wifi (and laundry)!
I’ll miss you Lake Merritt! (Taken on my last lap around the Lake on Thursday.)
Howdy! My name is Jen and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I like to eat, run, and blog, but not usually at the same time.
Running Tangents 
Yay…new home…time resting. Good decision!
You have certainly had a stressful couple of weeks! Sometimes I think mental stress is even more exhausting than physical. Hang in there!
Im exhausted just reading this! Probably smart to save the body and mind additional torture and stress. Congrats on the move but that picture does make Lake Merritt look pretty awesome.