(Tuesday) Shakeout
Rest, recovery, and Covid
There’s never a good time to get Covid, but the week after a major event isn’t the worst timing. Especially with one more major training block still on the calendar for fall, an extra few days of unscheduled rest following the Headlands 50K may have been just what the running doctor ordered.
Not that lying on the couch for three days with a throbbing headache and extreme fatigue was anyone’s idea of a good time, but at least it happened during a relatively chill transition period. The JFK 50 is still far enough in the future that a 20-point loss of fitness isn’t that big a deal.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. For once, the message actually cut through my naturally anxious state. I’m not sure if it was turning 50 or the feeling of accomplishment from running Headlands that served as the calming catalyst – probably both – but it feels like I’ve turned a significant corner in the old game of life.
For paid subscribers, we’ll take a closer look at what Covid did to my running program. We’ll also review, “Run For Your Life,” a 2018 guide to running and endurance by Mark Cucuzzella. An accomplished runner and M.D., Cucuzzella prescribes a kind of militant minimalism to combat the forces of processed food, stacked shoe heights, overtraining fads, and perhaps our biggest nemesis of all: the scourge of sitting. This one struck a chord.