This was my recovery week which really means I feel like I was a slacker :) I could have worked out more if I wasn’t living and breathing all things Staff Appreciation Week. It’s hard to do multiple things at once giving 100% to all of them. Something had to give. This week was exercise. I biked, swam and ran several times but not with intensity or endurance focus. For the first time in weeks I had more days when I wasn’t working out.

I took a private swimming lesson with a coach and got a few good tips. Overall he was very complimentary which was a great confidence booster. His tips focused on refinement. Biggest tip was that I was reaching to far in front of me and losing power because my elbow wasn’t bent correctly. I might meet with him again in a few weeks and see if I have improved.

I think the thing that I am having to focus on is how to do ‘active recovery’. As I struggle to get back on the bandwagon and fight inertia after my days off, I know I have to mentally practice “active recovery”. That there are more then two speeds in training. There is not just ‘all out’ and ‘nothing’. There is a big middle ground and I better figure that out if I want to be successful. And when I feel tired, I don’t have to automatically go to full stop. I can slow down and I can recover. My body knows what to do and I have a base now… I just have to trust. It’s hard for me to balance that.

Interestingly, I can tie it back to my food issues too. There is/was full and there is starving. I tend to gloss over everything in between and have had to train myself to be present and really feel what is happening. Not just eat because it’s there and in front of me - but be present when I eat and only eat “some” versus only eating NONE or EVERYTHING. (Still do that of course, but not like I used to!) I think I am now learning this lesson with exercise. And now as I try to increase my speed a bit, I absolutely have to figure out how to “push it” without feeling like I have to come to a full stop to regain my composure.

Ahhh… the metaphors of active recovery just extend to all areas of my life….

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