I’m cooking up all kinds of schemes and challenges for 2013, but in this last month of 2012, I’m resting. By resting I mean that I’m not training for anything in particular or working especially hard at my running. Yesterday, while I was out for a pokey three mile run I thought, I don’t have to log my miles or do speed work or even set aside a few hours on Saturday for a long run. I don’t know about you, but once in a while (usually for about a month sometime during the winter) I feel it’s sort of wonderful to run short and slow just for the sake of feeling fresh air on my skin and getting a bit of exercise.

Increasingly, as I’ve run more races and invested in improving my form and my pace, the joy I used to feel has eluded me. Bill and I often talk about our different approaches to running. He likes to focus on improvement while I like to think of my running as a practice in well-being. Still, the longer I do it, the more I feel compelled to increase the challenge. Faster, longer, stronger…. The question I asked myself repeatedly in my book is still one I seek to answer: What are my limits and what happens when I push myself past them?

BUT, through December I’m enjoying doing nothing but running 5 and 10 Ks around town, puttering on the trails near my house while listening to podcasts and well-loved music, and then retiring to the sofa with a good book.

Tell me about resting in your running life? Do you ever take time off from your training? When? What does it look like? What are the benefits for you?