Run for Fun vs Run for a Career...

Unscheduled rest day today.  Problem - IT Band.  As some of you know, it's not fun to run when your IT Band is bothering you.  Mine started to give me issues at the end of my run yesterday so I'm taking off today and Saturday to give it a little rest before I do my second 20 miler on Sunday.

IT Band - Illiotibial(IT) Band is the true name

What I call it.....
- The (I) can't (T)ake any more running band
- The (I) am (T)oo stressed band(my leg, not me)
- The (I) ran (T)oo much band
- The (I) (T)old you so band
- The (I) need a rest (T)oday band
- The (I) need a rest (T)omorrow too band

What do you call it?

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Running for fun versus running for a profession.  I think that many people think, oh, I want to be a professional xxx.  Be it a runner, football player, basketball player.  These jobs look glamourous and I'm sure at times they are but I can't imagine the kind of dedication that you need to have to do these things.  Plus, I'm not talking about the Tiger Woods and Ryan Halls of the world.  I'm talking about the professional athlete that is not in the top.  The ones that perhaps run and are happy to have a coach and a place to live with very little sponsor money.  They have real dedication!

Running for fun is certainly a different thing than what the pro's do.  Sure, I'm sure they have fun doing what they do - most of us enjoy parts of our job as well.  What I'm saying is they do this for a living and that puts another whole spin on things.  They HAVE to run and that's a big difference.  They have to eat, live, breath the sport from the time they get up until the time they go to bed.  They have to be great at what they do if they want to make any kind of living at it and I'm sure that put's a tremendous amount of stress on them at race time.

Not only the races though, they need to pay close attention to EVERYTHING they put in their mouth.  They must constantly hydrate, eat lots of calories(the good ones), keep away from junk food, get lots of sleep, run 2-3 times daily, run ungodly amount of miles and run that incredible speeds.  And all the time(sponsorship especially), they need to perform or they don't get paid.  I don't know anyone that is sponsored by Nike for being at the middle of the pack.  Winning = sponsorships.

I'm sure we all have local age groupers who run races in the 5:xx/mile paces.  They guys are awesome and incredibly fast.  I wish I were one of them.  Then they go home and get ready for work the next day.  Their good, there is no question about that, but not good enough.

Average mid packer-I know.

Top class

Of course, I've just touched on the subject and could get into it in much more detail.  I'm not sure you'd keep reading though, haha!

If you think about what the pro's have to do, would you want to do it?  Not for me - thanks!

Have a great day and.....Keep Running!!!!