Wednesday, July 5, 2006

There Are Worse Things

People have all sorts of habits that keep them up too late at night. They stay up to watch TV, read, use the computer, go to the bar, talk on the phone.

But, oh no, not me.

What is it that always keeps me up way beyond my bed time?

It is the evil runner voice in my head.

You know that classic picture of an angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other. Yeah, that devil would be my evil runner voice. It talks me into doing irrational things.

It'll get to be 10:00 or so, and I'll start getting this itch to run. I try to talk myself out of it.

I tell myself that today is an off day. I don't have to run.

I tell myself that I have to be to work early. I will be tired if I don't get to bed.

I tell myself that I need to do other things. There are bills that need paid or laundry that needs folded.

But that nagging little runner's voice in my head wins out the majority of the time.

You see, it is 1:00 AM, and I just finished running 5 miles.

And today was supposed to be an off day.

I was sitting at my computer, listening to music while making my RBF CD, and the music was making me want to run.

Then I started thinking about how dreadfully busy I am going to be for the next two days.

And that lead to me wondering when I was going to fit in my 5 mile long run this week.

The evil runner voice kept telling me to go do it now. But the rational voice kept saying, "But it's midnight! We can't start a run at midnight!"

Evil runner voice, "Sure we can! How about if we just run a mile or two?"

Rational voice, "Well.... that might not be so bad."

Evil runner thinking......"Ah Ha, Gotcha!"

Yeah, so I get on the treadmill and start running.

I hit the 3 mile mark, and rational voice says, "Well, we should stop now."

Evil runner voice says, "If we went 3, we may as well go 5 and get the long run over with."

Rational voice, "But it's sooo late."

Evil runner voice, "What's 25 more minutes going to matter?"

Rational voice, "Fine! You win."

Yeah.

There are worse habits, I suppose.

16 comments:

  1. LOL - I have the exact same "conversations" every time I plan an early morning run. I feel a little more normal now. Thanks!

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  2. Ahhh, yes, evil running voice got me out of bed this morning at 5am to run. ;) I know where of you speak!

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  3. At least you got your 5 miles in and therefore shutting up your inner voices - enjoy the rest of your week.

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  4. Hahhaaa....brilliant. :)

    If the little voice ever wants to jump ship, let it know there's a runner in Chicago who could use its reasoning.

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  5. Boy, have I had those moments. Especially when I know I am going to be out of town for the weekend...which is when I do my long runs... Sounds all too familiar!

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  6. That is too funny! :) Once it hits 10:00, I have no motivation for anything. I'm impressed. Run on!

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  7. Wow,that is funny. I like to sleep way too much for that.

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  8. thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Great post here too!! You nailed on the head the reason I ended up with ITBand issues... I could not tell that voice to stop talking. :)

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  9. gosh i think that's great! good for you for thinking ahead knowing you had to get those miles in somewhere!
    and btw that's a great picture on your previous post!

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  10. I would rather be asleep when my runner voice kicks in. I tell it to SHUT UP and allow me to sleep so I can run in the AM.

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  11. WOW! Now that is dedication!

    I love how all of us runners are like, "yeah, great job, keep going, I'm more of a 5am runner myself..." No wonder non-runners think we're crazy! :)

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  12. Haha, brilliant! I go through the exact same thing. Thanks for the encouragement about the bar stools.

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  13. Good for you...my runner voice doesn't do that to me, but my blogging voice got me up (on my day off) at 7:30am to read blogs...what's next??? I guess running at 10pm...have a great week, now that you have that behind you!

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  14. i have that voice, but it has never talked to me that late at night about running. The night voice is usually..."do laundry, clean the kitchen again, do you have milk, juice, creamer for breakfast, you are behind in your bills, blah, blah, blah"

    My running voice bothers me from 6:00 am till about 8 pm.

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  15. Dedication, my friend...dedication!

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  16. There are absolutely worse things you can do at midnight. You could be a motivation cover girl.

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