As you probably know, I took close to two weeks off from running over my wedding/honeymoon break.  I also took close to three weeks off from playing the violin.  Guess which feels worse!

My first run was about a week ago.  It was just awful!  My legs felt like lead the entire time and I was huffing and puffing.  I managed two miles before calling it quits.  I tried again the next day and it was a bit better, but still I felt slow and lumbering.  (Then again I always do.)  This morning I ran Forest Park with Jen (first time as a married lady, ha!) and it was one of the hardest runs ever.  Granted it was colder than I expected—my legs were almost numb, my feet hurt, and I was cold and wet—but I still felt awful.  Jen told me to quit beating myself up, that she had never heard anyone so negative.  (That’s me, I like to give myself a hard time:  I’m also carrying a little extra holiday/honeymoon weight, that I’m saying HERE on the blog, I want to lose it in the next month.) 

In a nutshell, running is hard for me.

Ordering pina coladas is NOT hard.

Let’s contrast that to the violin.  Last Sunday I started practicing my part for Winter Opera’s upcoming performance (and today’s rehearsals) of Strauss’s Ariadne.  I was a little rusty for the first 20 minutes, but after that I felt great, as if I’d taken no time off.  I was careful not to overdo it the first day and kept my practicing to about one hour, the next day about two, and we were back in business.  Today my fingers are a bit sore after six hours of rehearsal (the strings irritate your fingertips if you don’t have enough callous built up), but otherwise I feel fine.  Any trouble I had in rehearsal was due to only having one week to prepare the part rather than having taken three weeks off. 

In a nutshell, violin is easy for me.

Am I the best violinist in the world?  No, but I’m a good one!  Far better at the violin than at running 😉

Moral of the story:  when you’ve only been doing something for a year to a year and a half, taking two weeks off is a long time.  When you’ve been doing something since you were five years old, three weeks is nothing.

And that’s not a moral failing for me.  It’s just how things are.  I need to let it be okay that I took a break from working out and from healthy eating for two weeks over my honeymoon!

Speaking of the honeymoon, I’m going to continue the wedding recap this week!  Stay tuned 🙂