Decisions… and a Birthday Recap!

“Every decision we’ll ever make is made with incomplete information.” I recently read a blog post by Jeremy Enns called “The Impossibility of Right Decisions,”  Because we always possess incomplete information, he says it’s almost impossible to ever make a decision that, in retrospect, was the absolute best possible decision.  Instead, it’s usually a string of “pretty good” decisions that still move us closer to our goals. While reading this, I was in the middle of making my own big decision.  For the past month, I’ve been planning a big long run for Wednesday, March 22nd.  This week is my husband’s and daughter’s spring break.  March 21st is my birthday, and I told my husband I didn’t want any presents- all I wanted was the whole day to myself on the 22nd (I work on Tuesdays but Wednesdays are my days off.) This meant I could get up, get to the trail and start my run WHENEVER I WANTED!  What a concept!  Instead of working around my daughter’s schedule, I could actually get started at sunrise to (at least partially) beat the heat. Every hot run I’ve struggled with, I thought “That’s okay- I’ll have my big run on March 22nd.  Nothing could go wrong for that one!”  I envisioned the whole day, starting with the run, and then a leisurely lunch out- no driving anyone to school in the morning or rushing back for after school pickup. Well… in the days leading up to the 22nd, I was dealing with a painful issue in my left quad.  I hurt it on the bike last week and then exacerbated it by doing squats (why, why WHY???) and it was really sore. On Monday, two days before the big run, I ran four miles.  The quad didn’t hurt while I was running, but it was sore when I stopped, and was actually tender to the touch, which was… concerning. I was forced to reconsider the long run on Wednesday.  Yes, the quad might not hurt during four miles, but how might it feel after running 22 miles?  What’s wrong with it, anyway?  What should I do?  ARRRRRG! Let’s see.  The worst case scenario is that I would do the run, seriously hurt my quad and not be able to do my race (which is on April 22nd.). THAT WOULD BE BAD. Best case scenario, I do the run and the quad is fine.  In-between scenarios included getting halfway through the run and having to bail (that would be bad) or getting five miles in and having to stop (also bad, but not as disastrous.) The run could be rescheduled for Sunday, which would be okay but not ideal.  My alternate plan for Wednesday was taking my car in for servicing, which is pretty much the polar opposite of how I wanted to spend the day.  But, I’ve been driving around for weeks with the engine light on and I figured I could at least knock out that chore. Ugh.  On Monday night I was seriously thinking that I would not be running on Wednesday.  Sadness. Then, I woke up on Tuesday.  My quad was not entirely better, but it didn’t hurt as much as it had on Monday, and I calculated that if I had the same amount of improvement by Wednesday…. I could attempt the run.  Cautious optimism! There’s a lot of prep involved in these long trail runs (freezing water bottles the night before, getting all my gear ready) so Tuesday night I made my decision- I’m going for it! You guys, I had an absolutely magical run.  The universe obviously knew it was my birthday celebration, and cooperated in every way.  I’ll share more details in the Weekly Rundown on Sunday, but I ran 23 miles.  It was 66 degrees when I started and 79 degrees when I finished- but it was breezy, and I never felt overcome by the heat. I needed some sort of indication that I’ll be able to complete a 50K in a month, and this was it.  I have one more super long run before the race, and that one will (once again) be difficult schedule-wise.  But no matter what happens, I have this one to look back on. Afterwards I got a falafel sandwich from Maoz: This sandwich had falafel, hummus, cucumber, tomato, red cabbage, roasted brussels sprouts, olives, and tahini sauce.  And I got my birthday drink: Back in the day, I LOVED Coke.  So, so much.  But now I don’t drink sugar-y sodas (sob) so EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE I have a Coke Zero.  It’s not quite the real thing, but it’s still delicious. Later at home I took a lovely nap.  And even though I said no presents, my husband got me a couple things: For dinner we had vegan baked ziti, roasted broccoli and garlic bread. It was a great birthday!  Oh, and how did that quad hold up, anyway?  Well, funny thing.  I felt it aching a little during the run, but it felt more fatigued than anything.  And sometimes I didn’t feel it at all.  After the run it seized up and got very stiff, but the next day it felt exactly the same as the other leg- slightly sore, but nothing more.  So the next time something hurts, I’ll just go out and run 23 miles!  Right? Do you like birthdays?  – I like my birthday, although I don’t celebrate it in a traditional way (obviously.) Do you like soda?  – I love it so much, but nowadays my fizzy drink is usually flavored seltzer.