Loosing my Groove!

Like many, I have spent a large amount of my Christmas being a little too-well aquatinted with the sofa.  For a few days of that,  I was struck down by the vomiting bug and rendered lifeless and lacking in energy.  Before that, I suffered a cluster of migraines that lasted 10 days, so on the whole, I've lost my running groove!

Over the past two weeks, I have clocked up 22 miles, which is not bad going for me.  However, today was my first run after the bug.  And it hurt.   I ran for 5 miles, every one was as painful as the last.  My knee hurt.  The wind met me head on at every corner I turned.  I thought I was going to be sick.  I glanced down at my super-duper Garmin (my Christmas present) and felt further dejected when I saw my pace was bobbing between a 9:43 and a 10:03 minute mile. I can't remember the last time I ran at that pace. I called on all the mantras and motivational tools I knew of.  And I managed to keep going.   But I hated my run.  "I want to give up running" I thought briefly.

But I won't.  I am really only at the beginning of my running journey, and I know that running veterans have times like this.  I plan to rest tomorrow and go out again the day after.  The one good thing was that the sun finally came out!  (Albeit, after I got home!) But I'm taking it as an omen.

Here's a little something you may have read before, but I love it:
"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.  We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an action but a habit."  Aristotle