Getting Back in the Groove

Enjoying the view from the Bosphorus River in Istanbul

Three continents, eight flights, nineteen days and one hell of an adventure! Back in the States in one piece and already missing my nomadic lifestyle. After being awake for 24 hours of traveling I got home around midnight and could barely sleep a wink considering it was 7am in Turkey. So I caught maybe 3-4 hours of sleep and then was up at 6:30am for a short "get back in the groove" run with a girlfriend of mine. We did an easy 3.5 run and I definitely felt it. Yes we walked a ton when abroad and didn't really have time to laze around with all the exploring, but I also wasn't able to run once in the 3 weeks and had just sat in one cramped seat after another for almost 24 hours straight. I was a bit tight to say the least. But all complaining aside, it felt really good to get back on the road. Was it frusterating that before I left we were doing 7 mile runs with ease and now I was huffing after 3.5? Of course! But what are you going to do?

Many of my friends thought I was crazy to rush back into my early morning routines. "Why don't you sleep in... you're exhausted!" Honestly, I think my main motivating factor was fear. Fear that I was going to have time to think about how long it had been from my last run, and how hard it was going to be starting back up again... a fear I'd choose to procrastinate that first run to avoid the inevitable pain. Basically I didn't want to fall back into my old bad habits. I needed to rip off that band-aid FAST before I gave myself the chance to fail. Did I need to do it less that 7 hours after being back in the country... I guess so!