Running Stress?

I started this post last year when I was thinking about work, running and family. Since I have a major project ending next week at work (we go live with a new system and I am sure that will not cause me any stress), I thought it might be useful to finish the post. As I need to give thought to what I am willing to take on in 2011 and where are my priorities. If I really want to meet my running goals then I need to find a better balance.

The questions are "Did running in 2010 relieve stress?" or "Did running in 2010 cause stress?", the answer is of course obvious, yes, it did both.

This past year, I had a new job (same company) which allowed me to adjust to a new boss and to take on many new projects. Of course these weren't projects I started and hosed up, these were ones I got to finish. I generally am better at starting than finishing, heck that's a future post. Anyway, my work stress was high and since I failed to find the right work-life balance, it brought stress to my running as my time was limited so I was always trying to find the time. The truth is it was poor time management and lack of a focus on my running goals but it also added stress. The phrase that comes to mind is "paralysis by analysis", I spent more time thinking about finding the time and instead should have found the time. It seemed like every day I would have a plan to get in a run and then a crisis would come up and my plan would change and my run would disappear from the schedule.

I think though that by having the extra stress and trying to run longer, my mind and body broke down as I didn't take the time to protect myself. Even the injury at Superior, I think was caused by my stress, I was running tight, not with the free spirit belief that comes with good training and cross training. I went into the race with doubts about my back, my conditioning, my training and myself. So when the ankle rolled inward, was I stressed about other things and not paying attention which didn't have me react fast enough and made the injury worse or was it just a matter of bad luck?

So as I continue into 2011, I need to make the commitment to my family, my running schedule and my work and find a better balance.