Can you lose your gazelle like running stride as quickly as you lose your golf swing?

Before mortgage, marriage and baby I loved to golf.  I didn’t do it well, but man did I ever want to do it well.   But during a trip to Arizona and hacking up some of the most pristine courses there, a friend suggested that I take a few lessons (he actually gently suggested but English was his second language so the gentle part got lost in translation).  Slightly embarrassed but encouraged because he saw some potential, my search for an instructor would start as soon as I returned home.

Not wanting to run into anyone that I knew (I don’t know why I was so secretive about it at first) I found a nice golf course that I had never golfed at, and decided that this would be the perfect place to perfect my craft.  I booked my first lesson that week with one of the resident pro’s, Tom.  Uncle Tom as I liked to call him (not to his face of course) was what you would imagine a golf pro to be, early 50’s, handsome, tanned (although I am sure that it ended below his socks, above his knees and his shirt sleeve line) and smooooooth, I would refer to him now as a silver fox.  I met with Uncle Tom several times a week for a few months, we worked mostly with my 7 iron and would only let me bring out my driver now and again, but I was really hitting the ball, and hitting it straight.  Uncle Tom encouraged me to practice as much as I could which I did, it’s always fun doing something that you do well, that was until I decided that it would be a good stress relief to blow off some steam and hit a bucket of balls.  It didn’t take long, before I finished the bucket my swing was gone, and I sucked all over again.  I lost interest with golf soon after that, and then life with responsibility took over and my dream of being on the tour died a short painful death.

I do try to get out once in a while now and on occasions I see glimmers of that fantastic swing, I even took a couple of lessons at a driving range near my home with a few ladies not so long ago, but I couldn’t take the instructor seriously because he wore skater shoes (I know that I shouldn’t get that caught up on the outfit, maybe he taught skateboarding too) and he broke the timing of our swing down into the word mar-garita.

So what does all this have to do with running?  My question is, can you lose your gazelle like running stride as quickly as you lose your LPGA (or PGA) golf swing?

Lately I have been feeling super strong, my running has felt fantastic, the tweak that I had behind my knee that in March has resolved itself, even my feet have been relatively pain free.  I have run 4 out of the last 6 days, not huge distances, all road, 3 out of the 4 days the same route, and for the last 2 days my runs have literally gone down the tubes, my body is hurting and feel like a slug.  Today I ran the same route as yesterday and ran it a minute slower, and my time from yesterday was slower than normal.  I have gone through my mental checklist

• Runners are in decent shape
• I am fueled as well as hydrated
• I am well rested; I have not stayed awake solving the world’s problems for over a week.
• I am not over training in other areas, in fact my workout schedule has been fairly light (for me) for the past week.

I was away for the long weekend, and although I did live a little larger than normal it should not interfered with my running.  The only thing that I have changed in my diet over the last few days is adding almond butter to my morning toast.

Are these aches and pains psychosomatic because of my race coming up on Sunday, am I teetering on the edge of an injury, or have I just had one of those days two days in a row? The drama.

I was complaining about my crappy run earlier today in cyberspace and was reminded by a fellow runner that “any run…is a good run! From someone who can’t run at the moment.” So for now I am going with my last scenario…I am going to break the cycle and think positively, I am going to take a break from running for the next few days and rest my legs, I have a massage scheduled for later this week, but in the meantime I am going to put my feet up and have a nap this afternoon, maybe finish my non-fitness/health book and definitely not panic.