Yesterday as I was trudging up the hill with my friend Matt (around mile 12), I heard the words of my mama…”You’re no spring chicken anymore.” Most days, however, even at 49 years old, I feel like a spring chicken. Yesterday just wasn’t one of them.

And, as is often the case – especially when I find myself “struggling” with situations that are uncharacteristic of my normal behavior and capabilities – I ask: “What is the opportunity in this?”

To recognize the opportunity, I look back at my running week leading up to my long run. A week ago, I ran up and down Shaw Mountain Road 3 times to get in my 15-mile run. Since one of my goals is to become a better hill runner, this was a great run. And, to look at the elevation profile from my garmin of one 5.5-mile segment, the hills are pretty tame. (I’ve only been running hills seriously since about last September, so I’m getting better but I have a long way to go.)

My weekday runs were all good runs: one relatively easy run (in 19 degrees), one progressive run (every mile was 20 seconds faster than the previous one), and a speed workout with intervals. Add in a couple of days of strength training at the gym and a 1.5 hour cross-country ski “adventure,” and I felt like I had a pretty good training week.

So why was Saturday’s run such a struggle? Probably because I shortchanged myself on the recovery piece of the puzzle.  Because there wasn’t one day that I didn’t have some form of a workout, the “spring chicken” in me thought I had a great week.

Intellectually, I know all about the hard/easy program, and although I pushed myself on my speed workout, I didn’t really think my other days were too hard.

But what I found out by the end of the week was that I had compromised my FAVORITE and most important run of the week – my long run – by not giving myself enough recovery time during the week. I did a progression run on Wednesday, speed workout on Thursday, cross-country skiing on Friday, then went out for a long run on Saturday.

So, to the opportunity – lesson learned: Recovery time is equally as important (or even more important) to peak performance in everything. Knowing and doing are two different things – we have to act on what we know to be truly successful in anything.

I fell short of my long run goal on Saturday – I ran 14 miles instead of 20. In the scheme of life, that’s not a big deal, and I’m fine with it – I got in 14 miles. I’m glad that I got that little reminder at this stage of my training.

I may not be a “spring chicken,” but as long as on most days I still feel like a “spring chicken” and can do more than many actual “spring chickens,” I’m pretty happy! Think I’ll take the day off today…