I know. Not running. What is this madness? But it happens to all of us from time to time. Whether it be the PLAGUE OF DEATH (a cold in laymans terms) or an injury or just needing to recharge the batteries a bit. Sooner or later, the not exercising bit happens. Sometimes you are lucky and you can do other exercise things to fill the hole like crossfit or yoga or RPM but when you have the PLAGUE OF DEATH you can’t. And then you have to get really creative.
1. Shop.
Obvious. Because when you are not running you suddenly have a desperate need for more shoes. Or more crops. Or more calf sleeves. Or more tights. Something to fill the hole in your heart.
2. Create a Wall of Glory
Creating a display of your awesome running adventures is pretty important I think. You can get medal hangers if you want. I don’t have one yet. Should shop for that! But I’ve got an eye on one that says ‘Fear No Distance’. Perfect yes? But in the meantime you could just find some wall and make a collage of running fantasticness with your bibs and sticky tape and/or blue tac. You don’t have to be god’s gift to craft to have fun with it.
3. Organise Your Running Gear
I have all of mine in the garage away from all the other stuff for two reasons. Because it’s my favourite and it deserves its own special place and because it limits the chances of waking teeny children when I am leaving the house at stupid o’clock for a run. Every now and then I re-organise it and see if there’s anything that couldn’t be sent to the Pay It Forward section in our Forums.
4. Plan out my events for next year
This is fun. I can spend a lot of time looking at the running calendar, seeing what events are going to be coming up and which ones are going to be good to focus on in 2015. Next year I’m going to be planning on maybe only three events total, maybe four. So those are prize positions that I can’t just give away to any race that it looks like might be nice. Those things need to be considered.
5. Does that training plan need tweaking?
I thought so. A bit of time to fine tuning your training plan goes a long way.
And after all of that? Still sick/injured/not running? Just go back to number 1. Shopping is a good one.