Last night I was planning on doing my usual Tuesday night fun run with the group at Fleet Feet. I was looking forward to the night because I missed the Tuesday night run last week to attend a basketball game with my husband (also something that I enjoyed!). But my husband had to leave town by 8:30 PM and he had to take my car because his was not working right (it has a really strong gasoline smell when it is running lately). Thus I had to make sure I got my run accomplished and got back home by 8:00 so he could be certain to leave, pick up his co-worker and get on the road.
Because of the tighter than usual time schedule I knew I had to cut my run a little bit short. And that was kind of a shame because I finished up feeling great AND feeling like I wanted to keep running for a while. I contemplated going out to run around my neighborhood after I got home, but I was also pretty hungry and it was already dark so I elected to call it a night.
While I was making myself dinner, I debated getting up early the next day (today) to go for a run. But a run wasn’t actually on my training schedule for today and technically I am tapering for Phoenix right now, so I decided to obey my schedule.
When I took my shoes off last night, I discovered a small wound being rubbed into the top of one of my smaller toes from my new New Balance 768’s. (I like the shoes, I think it’s just something that needs to be broken in a little.) But since I was actually bleeding from my run, I took that as further confirmation that I should stick to the plan.
I will get out for my regularly scheduled run tomorrow. Sometimes it is hard to know when to stop, when you’re having several good days and you just want to keep going. But there does need to be some kind of balance because if I just keep pushing, then I may overstep my limits. I just hate the internal debate that wages when I’m at that point! Logic vs. enthusiasm…
Jill Will Run 
I hope your toe heals quickly. It’s good to follow the schedule, but I know what you mean about enthusiasm. So, how many rest days per week do you have when training for a marathon? I see a lot of different plans out there–I’ll select one when I’m 16 weeks out–with 1, 2, or 3 days rest per week.
GPDrums: My schedule calls for 4 running days a week, plus 2 cross-training days. Technically I get one day of complete rest. On my cross-training days I usually do some yoga, some strength training and I’ll occasionally slip out for a walk.
Logic…enthusiasm…warm bed: warm bed *always* wins out. That’s why summer training is a win-win for me 😀 In winter, you can always negotiate another time to workout. Summer? If you’re not out by 5:00am, you’re hosed.
My Asics gave me terrible blisters, within 8 miles. I went back to my Brooks? No blisters until 16. Just sayin’…….. 😉
LVGurl: Yeah, the warm bed is always a challenge at this time of year.
I switched to a pair of Mizunos and only got 1 mile in them before I KNEW they weren’t right. So I tried a pair of New Balance shoes and I’m really liking them, except for the small wound on the top of my foot. I never got any blisters from my Brooks, but my toe always hurt at the end of long runs and I have several black toenails now. Since running in the New Balance shoes my toes haven’t hurt, so I’m liking that aspect of them!