Rainy Day Thoughts

This morning the birds woke me up when it was still dark. There wasn't even light in the sky, and we had most of the windows closed because it was supposed to get down into the 40s with rain overnight. It was 4:00 am and it was pouring rain, and the birds were screaming like it was the first day of spring.

I couldn't motivate myself this morning to run in the cold rain and I can't force myself now, 7 hours later. I did go to the sauna this morning, but that's all. I've been tweaking some of my art stuff, I'm in the process of building a website for my new paintings.

I heard from Nick, who is tapering for Bighorn. He was worried that he's going to gain enough weight during his taper to affect his performance, and there's always the fear of things falling apart. I've had my own taper mishaps so I can empathize with him.

But I told Nick, the best thing he can do in the next few weeks is to avoid thinking. Those thoughts and second guesses about race preparation will weigh a runner down more than any food they can eat in the two or three weeks leading up to a race.

All this advice comes from Iris, who is full of good ideas today.

It is true that thoughts can weigh us down more than any physical weight. I try to cast all that heavy stuff off. When I find myself overthinking something, it's a waste of energy and time. So many better things you could do instead of obsessing about something, which is usually something you can't do anything about.

Running can get you thinking about things but instead of drawing the bad, obsessive thoughts out, it helps me put things in perspective. Then I'm able to let go of whatever was dragging me down and occupying all that space in my brain.

I know I could get myself out the door today, but I might not and I'm not going to worry about it. It's not going to make any difference in how I run in 12 days at the Estes Park Marathon. The only people who might care are the Buffaloes, but even Iris is a fair weather dog. When it rains, she wants to be inside. Good idea.