I've been feeling very down lately. Blah. Unmotivated to do anything and beating myself up for feeling that way. I'm not sure if it was too much R&R last week or chemical or what, but it sucked. I'm hoping the worst of it has passed.
Last week (wk 6) was my hard-earned R&R week. I was really looking forward to the rest. My Achilles tendon and shoulder really needed it. By Wednesday, I told myself I would do a little something to keep myself fresh. Not much, just a little. But I felt dead-tired. I had no energy all week. It was all I could do to make ends meet and keep caught up in lab, let alone think of anything else.
Thursday, I dragged myself (well, Jason dragged me, actually) to our 7 am spin class, and it made me feel better. I guess I'm addicted to exercise. Unfortunately, this is the last spin class for now, and it's not very half-IM specific as far as training goes so I'm going to have to rely on self-motivation to wake up for morning workouts.
Despite my most well-intentioned efforts, I did nothing Friday and Saturday except beat myself up about not doing anything. Which kind of sucked because it was supposed to be an R&R week. What's the point if I'm going to beat myself up anyway?
Sunday was the best day of the week, by far. Jason and went to La Jolla Shores. We went in the water and had the most terrific swim. I was a little nervous of it being too cold but it was perfect. About 62 degrees. Although the first bite of the water touching my feet worried me, I adapted quite quickly and wasn't cold at all after slowly immersing myself. We had a nice, long, slow warm-up, and I found that helped too. Gotta love the wetsuit! Plus, it couldn't have been more perfect weather. Brilliant blue skies, 74 degree-weather, no one at all on the beach, and water so calm and clear, it looked like glass. I have never swam in ocean water that calm. Very refreshing and inviting.
Afterwards, we changed into our running shoes and went for a 6 mile beach run. It was very nice and relaxing but it was hard. I don't know if it was the sand or the swim beforehand or not having run all week but I felt like molasses after 3 miles. We had to do a little rock climbing around some tidepools at the beginning, which was fun. I saw sea anemones, crabs, little fish, and a giant red starfish! North of La Jolla Shores is Black's Beach, and the naked people were out in full force. Most of them were out-of-shape middle-aged men so it wasn't the most pleasant site but it sure was amusing. There were naked people playing in the water, strolling, laying out, jogging, and playing volleyball.
Even though I felt sluggish during the run and dead-tired afterwards (what's up with that--after a little swim and run? C'mon!), I was happy my Achilles didn't bug me. I was pretty much useless the rest of the evening, however. All I could do was eat and sleep. Not sure what's going on there.
Anyway, I'm glad R&R week is over b/c now I get to get back to business. However, for future planning, I'm curious. How do you schedule workouts during your R&R weeks?
7 comments:
Hmmmm... My rest weeks aren't all that different than my regular weeks. The duration and intensities are lower (instead of 1:15 trainer ride, it's 1:00 with half in zone 1), and my long days are dropped down (1:45 trainer with 20 minute run, instead of 2:15 and 30). Long run will be decreased by 30 minutes.
This week is a taper weed for me, so it is WAAAAYYY down. Just 2 swims (3500 and 3000), and 3 runs (40, 20, 15 minutes). I don't touch the bike. I'm going to go nuts!
It's totally normal to feel sluggish during off days/weeks. I hate it!
Jodi
I don't and it sucks. Always. :)
I hope this week is better.
Huh, this is funny. During IM training, I always felt the worst during my R&R weeks too. To answer your question, I did whatever was prescribed on my plan, but I struggled to motivate myself. After all the the HUGE workouts of the weeks before, it seemed silly to get on workout clothes, tune up my bike, get out the door for some dinky little R&R week workout. I'm with Jodi & Habeela; it sucked and I couldn't wait to get back to the big mileage weeks. Sorry for not being more of a help.
Oh wait, I did have success with one mind game - I kept reminding myself of how my muscles were recovering and actually becoming stronger as the micro-tears were healing. That inspired me to eat better too to promote that recovery. Hope this helps.
Hey Rachel,
Don't be a slave to your training plan- if you truly feel tired and don't feel like working out, it's a sign that your body is craving rest! Definitely not worth digging yourself into a deeper hole working out when you are really fatigued. Just my two cents but I've been there and have buried myself before..tough to come back from mentally and physically.
Re: the R&R weeks, I try and set up a pretty consistent weekday schedule and cut waaaay back on the longer weekend workouts.
sorry for the looong post!!
The R&R must have worked if your Achilles is better.
I can't help with the question because if I'm starting to get tired I just scale back, don't have scheduled R&R weeks yet.
Ditto to Mike,
Eat and sleep is a good thing. If u are tired..sleep more. Let the body recover from the past 3 weeks of training.
Sun sounds like fun (except the naked ppl playing..and err jogging). That's how R&R week should be. Just go and have fun...relax.
Don't beat yourself up for taking some time off - listen to your body. It's not yelling at you for no reason. Give it some rest and it'll treat ya better! But I know...that's easier said than done. I think I'm addicted to exercise, too...I am not very pleasant to be around when I miss a workout!
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