i haven’t run much this week. it’s been humid, humid, and more humid. which wouldn’t be so bad if it were 70º outside, bit it’s been 80s-90s, and that’s just a recipe for disaster. so i’ve been taking a short running break.

i get runner’s world in the mail, and this month’s has an article on running anxiety and what can cause it. one reason is because of the time you need to put into it; another is a nagging injury and how it might be affected. and a third is thinking about your time.

i’ve always had some weird anxiety when i start off for a run; when i get into it, i’m generally ok. and it’s always been related to my time and how well i’m going to do. usually in the first 20 seconds i can tell if a run is going to be ok or bad. i had a run on monday that i knew in 5 seconds that it was not going to be a good run, and it wasn’t. i ran one mile and walked home. but overall, i haven’t had many runs like that lately.

what i’ve had to do is tell myself that it doesn’t matter how well i do on a run as long as i’m out there running. so what if i run a 13-min mile? i ran for 5 of them. the best thing that helped with that was shut off the speed prompts on runkeeper. i still get a notification every half mile on my runkeeper app, but i no longer know how fast i’m running.

and maybe it’s time i take a break from runkeeper. at this point, i know my routes and where i need to run to to hit certain mileage. are the prompts needed? do i really need to log my outdoor miles on runkeeper? is the distraction of a phone needed? if a person runs 6 miles with no phone, does it really happen? perhaps it’s time for an experiment of running without a device to see if it’s the device that’s causing the anxiety.

my short running break won’t last long; ragnar approaches and i am probably signing up for a couple races between then and now. and this upcoming week promises to be very runnable, with lows in the high 50s. now i’m not sure if that means i’m heading out my door with my road shoes or if i’m driving over to st. john’s to head out on the trail, but i know it means i’ll be logging some miles. whether or not i bring my phone with me is another matter.