Saturday, February 16, 2013

I need an outlet for all of my energy...wait..what?

This is just ridiculous.  Oh Saturday, a rest day, physically and more importantly mentally, a day to put my feet up and recover from the week, be lazy and enjoy aspects of life outside of training.  Except...I cant sit still!  

I've been bouncing around all day, my plan of sitting with my feet up and enjoy a good book didn't quite happen that way. 

Its just so counter intuitive, the more energy I expend in all this triathlon fun the more I seem to have to burn.  So I put some of that energy to good use and had a massive foam rolling session, with some dynamic stretching.  My training load is starting to go up, intensity is starting to be introduced to my schedule, and yet I have just felt fantastic.  I think the big difference has been the focus on recovery, a new commitment to foam rolling, weekly massages, nutrition and my pretty much zero stress lifestyle.  I'm exploring a new country with my amazing husband, studying to change my career to something I'm passionate about, and training for a sport that has been such a positive in my life.

A big part of that zero stress has been how I approach training now, before it was stressful if I missed a session or didn't hit mileage thinking about how I could fit in an extra session to make up the time.  Heaven forbid my Training Peaks summery said I ran 6 less miles than I planed!  My attitude has changed and instead of training being the burden to hit set targets, its play time to enjoy what my body can do.  

Play time - Thats how I feel about my sessions right now.  Last week I had a long run, the weather was crap, a mix of hail, sleet, snow and rain.  Sounds terrible, right?  I had a blast, its all about attitude and how you approach it. While it wasn't ideal, it was something so different than what I was used to in Texas, a novelty still to be running in Scotland.  One of those days where you think to yourself, I wonder if the competition just stayed cozy inside, and I just got the leg up.

Dont get me wrong I'm doing some hard work right now.  This last week was tough as training shifts from base phase to the build to Challenge Half Barcelona-Maresme.  But while these sessions in the moment I feel maxed out, just trying to make it through, I've been recovering so well.  

Yesterday I had a monster bike session, one that had me questioning if I would make it through just an hour into the 3 hour session.  Serious sweat fest that tested my resolve, I had to take in some rest minutes just to catch my breath, and I was just hanging onto the watt range.  I was shattered after that workout, it was brutal and I loved it.  Especially since yesterday started with a Swim session and strength training before the bike ride I figured I would be crawling out of bed this morning.  

Queue bounciness and energy high.  No soreness, and low fatigue.  I'm paying really close attention to how I feel, for signs of fatigue or soreness, because I can not afford another extended break for an injury.  Especially since I've see what almost a full year of uninterrupted running has yielded! I may feel a bit more tomorrow, from that lovely DOM's and all that, and my long run will depend on all systems feeling good.  

Soo another all over the place post of rambling to keep me sitting still for a while.  Think of your next session as play time, and have fun!

Carpe Diem

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