three things thursday
1. And they are everything I imagined they would be.
2. I realized earlier this week that every since I got back from Jamaica, I essentially jumped right back into my pre-Kinetic training. An endless rotation of lift-swim-bike-lift-run-lift-yoga-bike-run. The intensity has been much lower (quality workouts replaced with easy workouts) but the volume per week has essentially been the same. And I'm in my self-proclaimed off-season! What is wrong with me? I swore that after Kinetic I'd take some time easy and just do what I wanted, but it turns out that I'm stuck in some all-or-nothing mindset about training. This week, I started to feel burned out. Part of it, I'm sure, is residual exhaustion from Total 200. Part of it is that I have several friends in the thick of IM or half marathon or some kind of training, and it's so easy to just jump in on a ride or race as a social event and get carried away. But part of it is simply that I'm just not feeling motivated. This morning I woke up and it was 68ยบ outside with almost no humidity - a rare gift, this time of the year in DC - and I didn't want to go and run. Usually this kind of day would make me pumped to get out, but I felt dead inside.
I also tend to get stuck in this rut when I'm returning from an injury. I feel like it's so important that I continue to run every other day to maintain the level of healing I have and continue moving forward. But you know what? It's not. If I only run once this week, I'm not going to end up in PT for an extra month. I'm not going to suffer a huge setback in how well I'm progressing.
So what am I doing about it? Well, for starters, I'm taking an undetermined amount of time completely off. Not "off except I'll lift" or "off but I'll just do an easy ride." Off. I will do nothing, all day every day, for whatever period of time it takes for me to feel energized again (erm, Emily, check your email). It might only be a day or two, or it might be a week. (Side note: I will continue to do the 10 minutes or so of PT stuff once a day because, come on now, let's not be stupid.) I'm going to sleep in and eat two cupcakes for breakfast and not completely freak out if I don't reach 100 grams of protein every day and drink more than one beer if I want to. Maybe in a few days, I might feel like going to a yoga class. And then maybe I'll go out for a run if we get another sweet day like today. And the day that I wake up and see someone cycling and feel jealous and want to yell at them from my car, I'll really get moving again. But am I worried that I'm going to lose tons of fitness? A little, but logically, no. Am I worried that I might gain 20lbs and get sucked backwards in time? No. I might gain 3 or 4 or even 5 WHOLE POUNDS, and it might mean that those hill workouts are going to suck a little extra donkey schlong the first few times I go back, but I don't care. OFF.
3. And here's why I'm choosing to do this now. On October 2, I'm going after a stronger, better, faster (hillier, colder, sigh) half IM.
My next training cycle starts August 1. So I guess that puts a 31-day clamp on being a lazy fatass.
2. I realized earlier this week that every since I got back from Jamaica, I essentially jumped right back into my pre-Kinetic training. An endless rotation of lift-swim-bike-lift-run-lift-yoga-bike-run. The intensity has been much lower (quality workouts replaced with easy workouts) but the volume per week has essentially been the same. And I'm in my self-proclaimed off-season! What is wrong with me? I swore that after Kinetic I'd take some time easy and just do what I wanted, but it turns out that I'm stuck in some all-or-nothing mindset about training. This week, I started to feel burned out. Part of it, I'm sure, is residual exhaustion from Total 200. Part of it is that I have several friends in the thick of IM or half marathon or some kind of training, and it's so easy to just jump in on a ride or race as a social event and get carried away. But part of it is simply that I'm just not feeling motivated. This morning I woke up and it was 68ยบ outside with almost no humidity - a rare gift, this time of the year in DC - and I didn't want to go and run. Usually this kind of day would make me pumped to get out, but I felt dead inside.
I also tend to get stuck in this rut when I'm returning from an injury. I feel like it's so important that I continue to run every other day to maintain the level of healing I have and continue moving forward. But you know what? It's not. If I only run once this week, I'm not going to end up in PT for an extra month. I'm not going to suffer a huge setback in how well I'm progressing.
So what am I doing about it? Well, for starters, I'm taking an undetermined amount of time completely off. Not "off except I'll lift" or "off but I'll just do an easy ride." Off. I will do nothing, all day every day, for whatever period of time it takes for me to feel energized again (erm, Emily, check your email). It might only be a day or two, or it might be a week. (Side note: I will continue to do the 10 minutes or so of PT stuff once a day because, come on now, let's not be stupid.) I'm going to sleep in and eat two cupcakes for breakfast and not completely freak out if I don't reach 100 grams of protein every day and drink more than one beer if I want to. Maybe in a few days, I might feel like going to a yoga class. And then maybe I'll go out for a run if we get another sweet day like today. And the day that I wake up and see someone cycling and feel jealous and want to yell at them from my car, I'll really get moving again. But am I worried that I'm going to lose tons of fitness? A little, but logically, no. Am I worried that I might gain 20lbs and get sucked backwards in time? No. I might gain 3 or 4 or even 5 WHOLE POUNDS, and it might mean that those hill workouts are going to suck a little extra donkey schlong the first few times I go back, but I don't care. OFF.
3. And here's why I'm choosing to do this now. On October 2, I'm going after a stronger, better, faster (hillier, colder, sigh) half IM.