Jello Legs & The Should Voice

This week I have jello legs.  Yup, thats right, I have legs full of jello a.k.a jello legs.  It began on Sunday after a quite hilly difficult 10 miles through Central Park.  Coming back from that I knew I had pushed my body to the brink and right after a pretty exhausting cold no less.   The next day we spent in the car traveling and my legs were tired yet I made it a priority to get an hour of a elliptical done that night.  My legs felt weightless...very very tired, but they made it and thanks to the wonders that are compression socks my legs allowed me to give them a serious beating only hours later when I did a speedy 5 mile run.  Fast forward to this morning, yet another tired 5 a.m. wake up and even more exhausted legs.  No matter I told myself and to PT I went climbing on the StairMaster for some ugly rounds of circuit intervals.  And they were ugly!! My quads tingled, my breathing was heavy, and every bit of me screamed

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Compression Socks - My Hero!

So, I listened, well sort of anyway.  I adjusted the Stairmaster and allowed myself to go just a little bit slower.  Yet, I still did it and my legs still feel a bit like jello and I am still just a bit exhausted from all the events of the past week, so much so that I may or may not be heading to bed after writing this at 9 p.m.

What is a girl to do with these jello legs?  What do they mean and how do I proceed with them?  In my mind, I should not be suffering from jello legs.  There are so many other bloggers and runners running so many more miles and there legs or just fine the "evil part" of my mind says.  I should be able to power through.  I should have no problem with 4 miles (with 3 hills) tomorrow, when so many others are doing so much more day in and day out.  Come on Steph, man up, the "should" voice says.

But honestly folks, I am not sure if I have it in me tomorrow.  I don't know if these jello legs will hold up for a speedy, hilly 4 miles or 4 miles at all.  It has been a while since I have felt this exhausted and my legs this wobbly.  So what now?  Take a rest day?  Take it slow?  Yes, maybe I should.   There is that word again - should.  I should take a rest day; I should be able to do a speedy 4 miles tomorrow; my legs should not feel like jello.

So what am I going to do?  Nothing.  I am going to stop "shoulding," take my tired self to bed, and wake up tomorrow morning and go with the flow, see what my legs will allow me to do and be thankful for that.

Do your legs ever feel like jello, what do you do with jello legs and how do you stop the "Should" voice?

 When I get jello legs, I like to put on fuzzy pants and a dri-fit shirt and pretend I am begin productive