Sunday, February 20, 2011

Farewell to rest week

It’s an interesting conundrum…I am good at recovery – eat right after the workout, stretch, put my compression socks on, put my feet up, get adequate sleep – but I am not good at “rest week.”  What I mean is, I get bored and twitchy and look for other ways to fill my time since I am not training as much.  Sometimes I feel like my rest weeks end up busier than my normal weeks because I cram them with activities I never find the time for otherwise.

This week I

  • worked an awful lot.  I was even on work email at 7pm Friday night.  I may log in again today just to get some stuff taken care of before the Monday craziness begins.
  • ran the dogs multiple times in the pouring rain that never seemed to stop all week. 
  • except for Tuesday, when we had agility class to the tune of dry skies.
  • saw a double rainbow, while getting rained on, one of those days.

IMG00148

  • went to both Sharks home games. There goes the 8:45pm bedtime.
  • went to the local dog show both days this weekend.  Yesterday to run Stanley in Excellent A rally for the first time (poor Stanley was under the mistaken impression that this was more of a party than an obedience trial) and today to get his OFA thyroid test and cheer for a friend who was showing.  The good news is the fairgrounds are only ~2.5 miles from my house, the bad news is I still had to pay $8 for parking!
  • bought a comfy armchair for my bedroom, which will be my new reading chair for curling up with my Kindle and relaxing.  After I assemble it.
  • swam a lot of drills and did some very easy runs.
  • took a bike test.  Depending on how you look at it, either I gained a few watts over my last test, or I blew myself out too early in the test and will have to take another one in a few weeks.  Or both.
  • wore my new Valentines compression tights (the Zoot CompressRx ones from one of my previous posts) for the first time, in an attempt to remedy the stumps-for-legs condition I was put in by the aforementioned bike test.  While wearing them for the rest of the day did in fact work, it is worth mentioning that it’s a whole workout in itself to put them on!
  • had my first Lemon Drop.  Not bad, not bad at all.
  • saw a movie – I Am Number Four.  While I really liked the book, the film was a disappointment.  The scenes from Lorien and a lot of the lore around the Legacies was not carried over into the movie.

This week we start a new training block – yay for a return to normalcy, early bedtimes, proper eating, and some use for all this nervous energy of mine!  And, while it looks like it will be about 45 degrees and raining, and the open water swim bound to be chilly, I am still excited that I get to race my first triathlon of the year this week!!!! 

9 months exactly till IM AZ too, wow, that time is going to fly.

10 comments:

mtanner said...

Yay for the next block of work! Keep on keeping on Molly!

Anonymous said...

I am the same about rest week!! I find myself so twitchy and wanting to throw in a bike or run here or there. Keep up the great work!

Jennifer said...

What a busy week! You got compression gear for Valentine's Day?! Your man is very smart! Thanks for the comments on Number 4, I think I'll read the book first. Cheers! And have a great 'back to training" week!

GoBigGreen said...

Hey hey I am ending rest week with 15 inchs of snow so my relaxed early AM swim now becomes a traffic nightmare! 9 mos. wow. We have time:)

Maggs said...

I'm going to have to try a lemon drop soon.

ADC said...

My rest week has just begaun but unlike you I actually quite enjoy them.

Running and living said...

I am learning that the more hours/week I train, the tougher the taper and rest weeks are. When I was only a runner, taper would be easier. Now, I go out of my mind, I feel fat, bloated, irrational, irritable, and if I happen to have my period at the same time it is a true disaster! You seem to have handled the rest week really well, though!

Andy said...

Seems like you got a lot done during your week off! I so need to get some of those tests done this year! I had two scheduled this past Saturday, and they both got cancelled because their equipment was broken. How are the compression tights? I have socks, however, I have not yet upgraded to full tights yet. Good luck on the next block :)

Anonymous said...

I have no problem with rest weeks at all. None. I have problems with being sick or injured and not working out. But rest weeks - get my hair cut, get a pedicure, make soup...

Meera said...

Your rest week sounds like my Fridays. Fridays are my day off, and I manage to make it the busiest day of the week. :)