Playing truant

I confess. I played truant from the group's long run today. I was supposed to run in Skatås with them, but I decided against it. There were two reasons for that. One, a friend and I went out to dinner last night and good food was not the only thing that was consumed. Beverages that are counter-productive to training were imbibed enthusiastically. Two, I wanted to spend the day with J. It was ages ago we went on a proper hike together. So this morning we packed our backpacks with coffee, sandwiches and cinnamon buns and headed out to hike Torrekullaleden.

Some of you might remember that I ran Torrekullaleden a couple of weeks ago. This time, we hiked it clockwise, and I was curious to see if it would feel just as tough as counter-clockwise. It did. But that didn't deter me from wanting to try to run it in that direction next time.

This last week I have felt completely unmotivated to run. Nothing inspired me to put my shoes on and head to the woods. I have heard about post marathon depression and I wonder if I've been having a lite-version of it, after my easy 31-km run last Saturday. Not that I've been depressed, but when your goal is to run further, and you achieve that goal, then you have to set new goals: either run faster, or further. Right now I can do neither.

Beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice

I'm not particularly worried about this dip in my training; I don't follow a specific schedule and I don't care that much if I run fast. I'll never be a fast runner and I'm perfectly fine with that. As long as I can run far! Mostly I run when I feel like it, as far as I feel like and as fast as the mood takes me. If I don't feel like running one day (or two, or three), I don't push myself. My motivation comes back eventually.

Photo by J

And boy did it come back today. To hike the woods, to see that so many flowers have bloomed since the last time I was there, to see others run the tough trail made me start planning my next run there. With Göteborgsvarvet only two weeks away I should probably be taking it easy, but since I don't really care about my result there, maybe I should do what my heart tells me and hit the trails next weekend?