of resting and sunning and beer
The complete-rest manifesto is going quite well.
The first step was three complete days off. (Foodies, avert your eyes). I ate nothing but cupcakes and cheesy beer bread muffins and homemade pizza and drank beer and didn't count grams of protein and turned down workout dates and it was everything I had ever dreamed it would be. Until about halfway through the second day, when I started to crave vegetables. And then on the third day, where I could not force another pink-frosted cupcake down my throat and drank muscle milk by choice and was itchy and irritable and bored (and rested!) at 4pm. I managed to force myself to go out to dinner with friends and drink a beer sampler and eat (gasp!) meat, but I was ready to move again. So when Lauren suggested a ride the next morning, I was thrilled to BE thrilled to say yes. Our ride was both easy-paced and short, but my legs were pretty happy to move again. And we spent the rest of the day sunning by the pool.
In a nod to our country's birthday, I took another day off in order to spend time eating and drinking with friends (a theme is emerging). Monday morning brought a triathlete invasion of WL where I had the best (and longest) swim workout since I was in my training cycle for Kinetic. I'll go to the hill workout tonight because I'm starting to get revved up about Reston, but I don't really have anything planned for the next few days except maybe a yoga class. I feel good about it, I feel like my head is on straight and I'm not exhausted all the time and I was actually pumped to get in the pool yesterday. And all the resting I'm doing now is starting to get me psyched up for August 1.
As it has turned out, I've managed to take a week - or longer - completely off from every discipline. My first ride post-Total 200 was over a week after the ride. It was a week exactly between swim workouts, and today marks a week since I've run, and it won't happen today, and maybe not tomorrow, either. See, I started wearing the hot pink shoes last week when they showed up in the mail. I only wore them for an hour or two a day, and then I would start to feel some awareness on my shin and swap them out. On Saturday, after riding, I stopped by the gym to do a slightly longer PT session (I have no weights at my house, I KNOW). There's a small basketball court (maybe 2/3 the size of a real court) at my gym, so I decided to just do a few short strides the length of the court to see how the shoes felt. And it felt great - I felt light and fast and aware of what was going on. I spent the afternoon floating around in the pool, but then came home and had been cleaning for about two hours when I noticed my left heel was aching. I changed into my normal wear-around sneakers, but Sunday morning it was painful to get out of bed, and I have a visible bruise on the inside of my heel.
Thinking back, of course, I recall that when I was trying out shoes a few weeks ago, the Nike Frees gave me immediate feedback that I was heel-striking (pain) so I adjusted my stride, but I didn't feel that pain in the Kinvaras. At the time, I thought it was because maybe I was adjusting my stride around it, but now I think it's because there is just a tiny bit more cushioning in the heel of the Kinvaras, which masked heel-strike pain when I did a few strides but didn't prevent me from bruising. And I maybe should have chosen a softer surface (grass inside the track?) instead of the hard floor of the basketball court to try this out. I'm not actually that concerned about it - it's a bruise and will heal - although I am a bit irritated at missing my Tuesday morning glute-busting hill workout because of it, but it's all part of experimentation and I'd rather find it out now than in a peak week of half IM training.
How was your long weekend? Was it full of friends and babies and beer and puppies and burgers and bug spray like mine?
The first step was three complete days off. (Foodies, avert your eyes). I ate nothing but cupcakes and cheesy beer bread muffins and homemade pizza and drank beer and didn't count grams of protein and turned down workout dates and it was everything I had ever dreamed it would be. Until about halfway through the second day, when I started to crave vegetables. And then on the third day, where I could not force another pink-frosted cupcake down my throat and drank muscle milk by choice and was itchy and irritable and bored (and rested!) at 4pm. I managed to force myself to go out to dinner with friends and drink a beer sampler and eat (gasp!) meat, but I was ready to move again. So when Lauren suggested a ride the next morning, I was thrilled to BE thrilled to say yes. Our ride was both easy-paced and short, but my legs were pretty happy to move again. And we spent the rest of the day sunning by the pool.
In a nod to our country's birthday, I took another day off in order to spend time eating and drinking with friends (a theme is emerging). Monday morning brought a triathlete invasion of WL where I had the best (and longest) swim workout since I was in my training cycle for Kinetic. I'll go to the hill workout tonight because I'm starting to get revved up about Reston, but I don't really have anything planned for the next few days except maybe a yoga class. I feel good about it, I feel like my head is on straight and I'm not exhausted all the time and I was actually pumped to get in the pool yesterday. And all the resting I'm doing now is starting to get me psyched up for August 1.
As it has turned out, I've managed to take a week - or longer - completely off from every discipline. My first ride post-Total 200 was over a week after the ride. It was a week exactly between swim workouts, and today marks a week since I've run, and it won't happen today, and maybe not tomorrow, either. See, I started wearing the hot pink shoes last week when they showed up in the mail. I only wore them for an hour or two a day, and then I would start to feel some awareness on my shin and swap them out. On Saturday, after riding, I stopped by the gym to do a slightly longer PT session (I have no weights at my house, I KNOW). There's a small basketball court (maybe 2/3 the size of a real court) at my gym, so I decided to just do a few short strides the length of the court to see how the shoes felt. And it felt great - I felt light and fast and aware of what was going on. I spent the afternoon floating around in the pool, but then came home and had been cleaning for about two hours when I noticed my left heel was aching. I changed into my normal wear-around sneakers, but Sunday morning it was painful to get out of bed, and I have a visible bruise on the inside of my heel.
Thinking back, of course, I recall that when I was trying out shoes a few weeks ago, the Nike Frees gave me immediate feedback that I was heel-striking (pain) so I adjusted my stride, but I didn't feel that pain in the Kinvaras. At the time, I thought it was because maybe I was adjusting my stride around it, but now I think it's because there is just a tiny bit more cushioning in the heel of the Kinvaras, which masked heel-strike pain when I did a few strides but didn't prevent me from bruising. And I maybe should have chosen a softer surface (grass inside the track?) instead of the hard floor of the basketball court to try this out. I'm not actually that concerned about it - it's a bruise and will heal - although I am a bit irritated at missing my Tuesday morning glute-busting hill workout because of it, but it's all part of experimentation and I'd rather find it out now than in a peak week of half IM training.
How was your long weekend? Was it full of friends and babies and beer and puppies and burgers and bug spray like mine?