And The Need for a Break.
I do have a bad habit of not responding quickly enough when I'm getting too tired, so I don't get good quality rest days in in time, particularly when its not just training related fatigue. Being my first season of triathlon (with its 2 races I'm calling last year my prologue), I've got a lot to learn about how my body copes with sustained training, as its something I've never really done before. When I've had a 'health kicks' in the past, they've tended to be very short lived or just involve one or two short sessions in a week, maybe a swim on a Monday and a game of 5's on a Wednesday, enough to make do and to give me enough fitness not to be panting if I had to run for the bus. So with my desire to go long and to get faster on the short distance races, I've got to start paying more attention to what my body is telling me.
For a rookie, I've had a relatively well stacked race season so far I reckon; a sprint duathlon, then a middle distance tri, short recovery break, then into 3 sprint tris and a 10k with a fortnight between each of them. After Tighnabruach, I had a couple of days off, then cracked straight back on wanting to get some big cycles in, so the following two weekends got a 90k & 70k cycle in (which are again long for my current level) and a few extra swims sessions on top of my normal training. Take that and add the stress of the busiest time of the year at work, multiplied by the lowest morale I've seen in the office and add in a looming audit next week, and its really no surprise I was feeling knackered. So following some good advice (if you're feeling rubbish, don't train, you'll just make it worse) I ditched my plans to cycle back from work on the Saturday (the one Saturday of the year I have to be in, so its not too bad) and instead took the car, so that when I got home I could lie on the sofa feeling sorry for myself, before heading round to a mates to moan about all the stress from our respective workplaces.
Today I woke up a different person again, and after a long lie in (I got out of bed at 9:30!), slowly got myself out to Bellahouston park to play about with aero set up on the bike - the outcome of which is that I'm going to need a lot of help setting up a comfortable position that also gives me full power.
But I wasn't really out there for the bike, it was for a run through some parks in the sunshine that I was after, just the joy of movement and the glory of the world around me, one of those days you are just glad to be here. My legs felt great, so a run from Bellahouston to Pollock was extended out to Queen's park then on again to King's park before heading back to the car. By no means was it a non-stop effort - the weather was far too nice and the temptation to great to take some chances to just chill out on the grass for a while after I turned round at King's Park - but that's alright, as today was all about whatever helped further soothe away my worries. And it worked.
So two things I'd like you to take from this dear reader, take a break when you need it and make sure you take it the beauty of your surroundings, particularly when its as glorious as it was today.
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