UPDATE: This was the last turkey I ever ate – I became a vegan less than two weeks later after watching the documentaries Forks Over Knives and Vegucated. Read more about my life-changing decision (and why I’m so much happier and healthier) here!
Ok, so a Turkey doesn’t have much to do with running. Until you have company and decide to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for them the night before your long run. Couple glasses of white wine, huge turkey dinner, three slices of pie… I was feeling a bit apprehensive about my 10 miles scheduled for Thursday afternoon!
So I cut it down to 8 miles.
But then my hamstring started to bother me at mile 2, and I freaked out about the possibility of making it worse and came home after only 4.5 miles.
Whoops.
And yet… I’m not going to worry about it. I’ll go for a run tomorrow, hopefully my hamstring will be fine, and I feel pleased that I didn’t cancel either my Turkey dinner plans or my long run. I just tried to do the best I could with each one, and knew I might run a little less or a little slower, but I was getting the most enjoyment out of life by not making myself choose between them.
I wouldn’t eat a Turkey dinner or drink wine the night before a race, but for one out of many training runs? Sure.
How different is that from my first half marathon training, when I used to have weird dreams the night before every long run, and stress out about being able to complete them?
It’s nice to have running be so normal that I’m not panicking about working my life around it the same way I used to. I run when I can, and keep my schedule as much as possible, but I’m flexible, too. I’ll hit 16 miles this week instead of 21. I’m pretty sure my 13.1 in November will happen just the same.
Because after all, once you’re past 10 miles a week, the rest is just for fun, right?
Are you sure you’re only 30? You certainly have the wisdom of someone with many more years under their belt! You have such a well balanced outlook on life, exercise and family. And yes, the 13.1 in November will definitely happen just the same, and you will be more than ready for it.
I found that I did pretty well on my long runs when I had (homemade) pizza and wine the night before! In fact, the night before my half, that’s exactly what I had, because one of my trainers told me to do absolutely nothing differently on race day, and I took that to include pre race fuelling too!
Turkey dinners are my favorite kind of dinners and are always best when shared with people you enjoy. I’m RICE-ing for the next five days due to hamstring tendonitis and find myself going a little (a lot) crazy with all of the sitting around, running has become my new normal too.