Comparisons

"Comparisons are odious"- I definitely believe that.  While I'm pretty good at avoiding comparisons generally, I can't seem to shake the comparison habit when it comes to running.

Lately it's been really hard to find the time for running.  I'm a full time student gearing up for finals, and due to some unexpected financial hardships, I've been trying to work a lot more hours at work.  The end result is I have very little time to run right now, and I'm generally exhausted.  While I'm a prponent of the whole "run less run faster" idea, that depends on replacing running time with cross-training, which I haven't really been doing either (unless walking around for hours at work counts as cross-training, but I'm not counting on it).

Then I see all my friends posting their running miles, and I should feel happy for them, but to be honest, I'm not.  I'm jealous, and it's ugly.  I want to be running, I want to be training, and I feel left out.  I feel unprepared, undertrained, and inadequate.  What makes it worse is that I'm running many of the same races, so it's easy to see their training and feel that I should be training the same way.  I'm worried I won't be able to make my race goals because of this slump.

I know this is a temporary situation, and given all that's going on in my life right now I shouldn't be so hard on myself.  But it's easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees, and every day I can't find time to run hits me hard.  All I can do is try to remind myself that things will get better, and enjoy my runs when I can get them!