TRD - Total Rest Day

Or "True Rest Day".  Whatever.  All I know is that today fulfilled my notion of a true/total REST day.  The first of the month!

Despite the exclamation point, I feel somewhat conflicted about taking what seems to me to be yet another rest day.  Jotting down last week's schedule, I noted that both Tuesday and Thursday fit the 'rest day' bill since I did not swim, bike nor run.  However, when I gave it a bit more thought, I realized that Tuesday was "a pack up my gear, head to a camp ground with a few dozen students and some of my colleagues, proceed to settle in for a few days, and then participate in some fun activities such as sailing and evening yoga" type-of-a-day.  Restful, not really at all.  Thursday followed an evening aquathon and also involved several miles of walking to the beach twice and spending far too much time in the sun.  While neither day would qualify as a "good-work-out" day, I also hesitate to claim them as rest days as there was little that I could describe as truly restful about them.

Today, however, is a different case.  While I did not laze around in bed, unless the 6:00 am hour is late, I did not have to rush out of the house.  A relaxing cup of coffee and breakfast while I listened to NPR's morning edition allowed me to enjoy the morning, even as I finished grading a final stack of exams.  I followed that with a lunch out with a few colleagues to review the year - definitely a necessity, especially accompanied with french fries!  The evening has rolled around as I sip a Racer 5 IPA and work on a few more odds and ends for the close of the academic year.  This seems like the perfect day to acknowledge that I've more or less survived the year!

As the next weeks roll by, I do need to get back to a major training plan.  I keep ignoring my proverbial "elephant in the room", that little race in Boulder, CO that is about 8 weeks out.  In the meantime, I plan to fully enjoy the rest of the evening before a little swim/bike action tomorrow morning!

"Progress" report

Happy Leap Year day!

Last week, apparently, whatever I wrote about my so-called progress for the month or year went into a black hole.  This wouldn't be such a terrible thing, except that since then, I've turned into a major sloth.  I probably would have given myself a B last week, but would now say that my monthly average is more like a C.  And, while in some circles a C is perfectly respectful, I still remember the one or two C's that I rightfully earned/deserved, and it does not make me feel better about myself.

As an adult, however, I think that I'll take a more laissez-faire attitude about grading myself.  After all, who really gives himself/herself "life" grades?!  Obviously I'm weird.  Or a teacher (which equals weird).

I also should have anticipated a bit of a slump at this point.  I went away for a three-day weekend which was fun (sort of?) but very exhausting, and the piles of papers (essays, quizzes and tests, oh my!) have overwhelmed me.  So, most physical activity has taken the back seat to the impulse that I really need to get my life shit together.  Now that I feel somewhat more in control of the piles of grading, I should be able to refocus and think about this whole 'training' thing.  This is particularly true because I just took five days totally off exercise, except for walking and standing and pacing, and my body feels pretty rested and not sore for the first time since January!  So, the goal for March - crank up the training!

But, back to February...  The month pretty much kicked my ass which I anticipated, but somehow the knowledge that it was going to be hard did not help me too much.  I took on another class for the semester, our life has been busy and I like to make excuses.  So, I missed plenty of scheduled workouts and my double workout days are probably still in the single digits for the month.  However, I would like to focus on the positive, and there were quite a few of those moments, fortunately.

First of all, I did manage a few 'bricks' for the month - one bike-to-run that kicked my ass but felt great when I had finished, and a few swim-to-run.  The swim-to-run really means nothing because that is not a common transition, but at the very least it makes me feel that I'm focusing on different skills and not just one or the other.  Also, I hoped to get in at least one 'long' run, anything over 7 miles or so for me, and the Mt. Wilson practice run definitely fulfilled that goal.  While my biking enthusiasm wanes on a regular basis and I often forgo the weekday ride for a spinning class, I did get in the saddle a few times on the weekends.  My last weekend ride, 2 Saturdays past, was pretty great - I did, for myself, a fairly serious climb, hitting almost 3,000 feet within 8 miles or so as I rode a very small portion of the Angeles Crest Highway. I'm slowly inching my way up that road - maybe one day I'll be able to bike the entire length?!  Finally, my last goal for the month was to volunteer at an event, and I dutifully handed out water at the Pasadena "Rock 'n Roll" Half Marathon.  It was quite fun to be a volunteer and gave me a new perspective on races.

I did fall short in plenty of ways, but I'm excited that March begins tomorrow!  I do hope that I can sharpen my focus and put in more miles on the bike and complete 2-4 (nice range) bike-run bricks.  Also, I'll be taking swim lessons for a few weeks which should force me to push myself more in the pool and work on technique and speed, hopefully!

At this point, my first race of the year isn't until April - I just signed up for a duathlon.  I admit that I am missing the monthly road or trail race, but there is some reasoning behind the lack of racing.  First of all, our lives are kind of crazy these days, and throwing in a race or two would just amp up the craziness to a level that would not be helpful or healthy.  It isn't just my life that I'm considering, but two adults who are trying to juggle different priorities.  The second reason that I've put off signing up for lots of running races is that I do want to focus on the Wildflower Tri.  I've enjoyed good health this year, unlike the two months last year when I couldn't run at all because of a weird foot injury, and I consider myself fortunate.  With that in mind, I don't want to overdo it (whatever "it" is) as I train for a tri but also run to my heart's content.  So, the running to my heart's content has been pretty much shut down as I try to amp up other skills (at which I pretty much suck).

It has definitely put into question my so-called runner's "identity" as I'm not running very much these days.  My hope is, however, that I'll be healthy for Wildflower and for the big prize this summer, the Boulder race (which I'm not thinking about, not at all, no, no, no!).

Shew, that was a lot of navel-contemplating for me, but hopefully it will help me kick things into gear tomorrow!

Rest day: Good for the mind, good for the body

(I randomly changed the name of my blog - we'll see if it sticks!)
I am enjoying my last Sunday of somewhat sustained calm for the next few weeks or months as a new semester gets underway tomorrow and I pick up another class to teach.  While January is not yet over, I am mentally lumping the last two days in with February, which looks to be a pretty crazed month.  That will be in stark contrast to the past few weeks which have given me ample time to nap, eat and drink well, play a lot, and train pretty hard.
On that last note, I must acknowledge that I went from minimal tri training (zero) to over-training.  Perhaps it connects to being a forty-something-female and the sense that I need to do as much as possible soon now at once!?  But I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that I would like to actually RACE, for me, the Wildflower Tri this year, rather than be content to merely finish it.  Since the past two weeks presented me with tons of free time, I decided to fill too much of that time with training hours.  Today, since my body pretty much rebelled on me yesterday after a 2-hour hike in the Santa Monica Mountains, I am taking a very unscheduled day OFF which was supposed to happen on Tuesday.  I had planned to spend part of the morning in the saddle, actually meeting up with a group (gasp!) for a training ride.  The decision to cancel the ride had nothing to do with my fears of meeting random people and looking/feeling inept and had everything to do with the fact that my body felt exhausted, especially my left leg (IT band and shin issues suddenly coming into play).
And so, I made a strategic choice:  Take the day off to focus on resting and on preparing for school tomorrow.  I love that I have to "focus" on resting!
Sometimes, however, I find that it is more challenging to just stop and take a break.  In my ideal world, I would happily (and healthily) balance the demands of work, grade everything my students hand in within 24 hours, while also training something like 2 hours a day.  To add to that, I would eat well and sleep 8 hours every day.  Or, if I couldn't sleep 8 hours, then I could function well on 6 hours of sleep a night.  Oh, and I would have a great relationship with friends, colleagues, students and, obviously, spend quality time with my dogs and husband (does anyone else kind of hate the word "husband"?).  I can live with a certain amount of chaos in my life and don't get too hung up on the idea of a perfect equilibrium in my life, but I've also come to accept that the idea 2+ daily hours of swim/bike/run at this point is completely unrealistic given my life and priorities and physical limitations, like a terrible knee and general joint issues.
On that note, I've had to recognize the obvious:  I am a training wimp.
So, on that note, I'm giving my legs a major break today with lots of time on the sofa as I watch the X-Games (Shaun White is a beast!), lament Nadal's defeat in the Australian Open, and prepare for classes and meetings next week!