Savor those recovery days. Yes, this comes from an admitted recovered 'push-aholic;' there was a time when I scoffed at the easy run, figured that ending each and every run utterly exhausted, or at least very tired, was the only way to do things. This was more mental I think; I thought I was just being a 'slacker' or 'wimp' if I didn't push the envelope each time out. My easy days would evolve into quasi-pick-up runs where by the end I was going much too fast to ever fully recover. While I would mentally pat myself on the back for kicking my own butt yet again, in truth I was only setting myself up for future failures and beratings.

What happens when you go too hard on the days you are supposed to recover is that your workouts invariably start to suffer. Maybe not right away, but the build-up of hard workout, after hard run, after hard workout, will eventually catch up to you. That could come in two ways; you will either experience a drop off in times and be chugging home in those intervals with slow times but the effort seeming insurmountable or you'll wind up injured. It was once said to me, "that if you don't give yourself a break one will be provided for you"...the body can only give so much. And what's more is to effectively train and get faster you have to allow your muscles to recover; we break them down during hard workouts and the days after are when they are trying to heal up and come back stronger. That way when they do build back you will be able to go faster in the next workout and then continue to build off that. Yet if the muscles instead get broken down even further on the 'easy' days they never build back, they never come back, and you'll see the results in not only frustrating times but fatigue to follow.

I learned that the hard way, actually it took a few times...haha, as with anything I'm usually one to think in extremes so it takes a while for a lesson to really hit home. :P I was pretty lucky (well, I guess my luck has now caught up to me!) in that I didn't suffer very many big injuries but I definitely did myself no favors training and racing-wise. There were plenty of times I'd show up flat come the end of the season or in workouts for the shear reason I was just too tired and over-training myself by not ever taking it easy.

Runners, and competitors, by nature are well...competitive, and our biggest battle is usually against ourselves. We want to achieve those goals TODAY, and we will get there come heck or high water. But the truth is that in order to get to the starting line, and eventually the finish line in the time or place you want, you have to have patience. You also have to have put in the work and hit those hard workouts, BUT you won't be able to nail those hard workouts if you're too tired due to lack of recovery. It sounds counterintuitive but you have to give yourself a break sometimes- go easy on the easy days.

I got to the point where I would allow myself to enjoy those easy days, especially after they were hard earned from a killer workout the day before. Running has always been a passion of mine and not only the competition aspect, but just doing it...I enjoy being out there. That can be alone or in shared company...don't make every run a do or die endeavor, it can rob you of the enjoyment but in the end it won't do your training any favors either.

I thought with all of the recent attention being drawn to certain celebrities, or those who claim to be celebrities, it was worth addressing the whole plastic surgery issue. I myself have seen far too many Dr. 90210 episodes to venture going under the knife, but apparently that is becoming more and more of a rarity. I'm not saying that I think I'm better than anyone who has had plastic surgery, but I would be lying if I didn't point out that depending on just what the said surgery was I may think of them in a different light.

There are countless tales of the model looking to enhance her butt and then dying on the table. Others undergoing risky augmentations in countries with more lax medical licensing laws who either wind up with botched jobs or never wake up at all. I feel it is sad that there are those willing to die for vanity. Yet it isn't always necessarily vanity, but insecurity that is the underlying issue. A lot of talk has steamed back to Heidi Montag of the infamous Speidi relation, and I would say there are definite insecurity issues there. No one is perfect, and to chase that ideal is something common with many people afflicted with one addiction or another other problem. Obsession with anything can become all consuming; it is the case with eating disorders, substance abuse, over eating, addiction to these surgeries, and even addiction to exercise.

Exercise is something completely healthy and should be incorporated into everyday life, but as with anything it can be taken to the extreme. Working out to be healthy and overall fit and fierce is one thing, but punishing yourself and doing it solely to lose weight or look a certain way isn't going to make it enjoyable and in the end you may not ever wind up with the results you crave. There are always 'trouble spots' that you will be critical of yourself over and in the end are you going to be unhappy in your overall life if you don't look like the 'ideal' you have set up in your own mind? Workout because of the way it makes you feel inside and that joy it brings after having accomplished something you didn't think you could have ever done. There are few times that I am more proud of than when I've finished a race or particularly daunting workout and have had a personal best time or surpassed my own expectations.

Especially with the growing number of surgeries that are geared to chiseling out that Adonis body that you don't want to work for at the gym or stick to a balanced diet for, I think it's sad people are looking for the easy way out. Skipping the gym and excising solely on KFC and Dunkin' Donuts but getting the fat sucked out of their body in an attempt to remedy the situation isn't the way to go.

Of course there are people who have every reason to go under the knife; they have lost so much weight in order to be healthy they need the subsequent extra skin removed, children born with deformities, you're met with a horrendous accident and your face is damaged, and there are far less extreme cases in between. But I think surgery should be a kind of last resort because you need to ask yourself if it really will make you happy. If so, then go forward, but if you are chasing an ideal that may never be achieved there is something else that is bothering you.

I am the first to admit it, I'm a bit obsessed when it comes to running and working out. It is a joke that anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me will partake it; there may be a question as to what I'll be doing on any given day but I can say with nearly full certainty that I'd have gotten in a run no matter what. I have ridiculous stories that can attest to this very fact (running in place in some pretty funny locations) but my mind will not be at peace unless I've gotten my sweat session in. This, I admit, is probably not the healthiest outlook in that it is actually better to take a day off now and then, but for my own peace of mind I forgo it. There are some that say it's just that I'm addicted to exercise, and that may be; but I guess better this than crack, right?!

But the point that I will eventually get to is that sometimes you have to back off. I finally allowed myself to do this (albeit it was wrought with some anxiety and discomfort) but I could tell and feel in my runs and workout program that I was tired and need a bit of a break, or at least to ease up. I tend to err on the side of 'more is always better', but the truth is that there is a point that needs to be drawn in the sand. Where you're just over training and instead of progressing and building up muscle you're actually tearing it down and getting catabolic.

The body is a complex creature and this pertains to training and sports performance as well. On any given day you are never certain just how you'll 'feel' or do; in distance running for example, you could be in the best shape of your life but come race day you could be left feeling flat, off, and finish far below what your workouts would have predicted. So in training and working out it's always going to have an element of unknown; one training program may work for one person but not another. Everyone is different and it is up to you to then learn your own body and be able to read its signals.

It took a lot for me to admit that I needed to back off; but sometimes the hardest part of training is knowing when to cut back or even *gasp* take a day off. I chose to cut back, and you know what, I've been feeling better on my runs. When it comes to your own training, if you are like me and feel compelled to do exactly what was planned to a tee come hell or high water and no matter how you feel, sometimes the hardest and best thing to do is to listen to your body. You will be able to come back stronger and feel better; if you dig yourself into a hole too far and become too depleted you may be left so tired that you'll have no choice to then take a significantly longer time off.

Just because one may appear to have it all, the perfect body, an amazing career, and to all outward appearance seem to be living the dream, that does not make them immune to insecurities and their own inner turmoil. When it comes to one's body and their body image, what they see in the mirror can be vastly different from what the rest of the world perceives. In her recent interview with Q magazine, Lily Allen admits that she suffers from Body Dismorphic Disorder, "I was sitting in bed last night and I caught sight of myself in the mirror," and what she sees is, "someone who is more overweight than they actually are."

In fact, BDD is a distressingly common problem, and while it does not always accompany an eating disorder, the two often go hand in hand. It is a psychological disorder in which sufferers aren't able to accurately see themselves in their true shape. BDD is very common with anorexia in which the individual will generally still see themselves as too fat despite protruding bones and a dangerously low weight.

This preoccupation then feeds into their disorder as they still adhere to their strict diet and workout regime. In a culture that is so obsessed with thinness and the perfect body, it is sad that for an increasing amount of young women, and men too, eating disorders and BDD is rampant. The line between a healthy diet and exercise amount is often blurred, and when one crosses the line between what is okay and what is instead a life consuming obsession it can be hard to distinguish as an outsider.

For this reason many eating disorders and exercise additions go both unnoticed or untreated, as the individual will often vehemently deny that their is a problem. In fact they will more often than not be in a state of self denial themselves. Yet both of these are life threatening problems that carry both physical dangers and mental torment. Early recognition and intervention for those with eating disorders and exercise addictions is the key to a successful recovery, for the longer these unhealthy habits are allowed to continue the harder it is to reverse them.

While BDD alone is not necessarily going to cause someone to take unhealthy and drastic measures to change what they see in the mirror, it is a dangerous step in that direction. Eating healthfully and exercising in a moderate amount has shown to help improve one's self esteem and can at times help to combat a poor body image, but when taken to the extreme it can wreck havoc on one's body and mind.

It turns out there may be more to that uncomfortable nagging feeling that avid exercises experience if they miss a workout. While some people seem to look for any excuse to dodge the gym or a run, there is another group just as anxious to get their workout in no matter what. Of course this is usually the case with professional athletes and other high caliber competitors as it is usually vital for them to stick to a rigid training schedule; however there are plenty of 'regular' people who seem almost addicted to their daily sweat regime.

New research from Tufts University backs up what these people can only explain as simply something they 'have' to do to feel 'right'. It's not uncommon to find runners who are sent into a sort of gloom or despair at having missed a run, and even running 'streakers' who boast of not missing a single day of running for years on end. That fabled 'runner's high', while regarded as a sort of elusive holy grail in the running community when the act is so effortless that you feel you could go on forever, may actually have a physical cause.

Endorphins, which are released by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus during times of intense exercise in reaction to the body's depleted glycogen levels, are interpreted by the brain similarly to those found with opiate use. These endorphins produce a positive feeling to the exerciser and thus create the feeling of ease and unending energy. It is in this same vein, that many recovery drug addicts substitute exercise during times of intense cravings during their recovery.

When rats, which are often found to parallel reactions in humans during tests, were allowed to run freely on a wheel for a few weeks and then abruptly forced to stop, they experienced signs of withdrawal symptoms. The team conjectured that this same response is what eager exercisers of the human variety claim to be that itch to get in their workout no matter what. "Exercise, like drugs of abuse, leads to the release of neurotransmitters such as endorphins and dopamine, which are involved with a sense of reward," Robin Kanaraek, the professor of psychology leading the project stated.

Of course, if one has to pick an addiction, exercise, when kept below an dangerously extreme level sometimes found in eating and exercise disorders, is a relatively benign one to harbor. Keep that in mind the next time you kid your friend when they skip on other plans in favor of a date with the gym, and try not to take it personally.