My head said to go, but the rest of my body wasn’t getting the message. This has been the case for the past couple of days. Yesterday, I let the lunch break pass by and continued working at my desk for the 3rd work day in a row. I kept on and told myself that since the kids weren’t going to be home after work that I would go running then. Well, I didn’t. Instead, I folded laundry, feed my face and the blog. Before long, it was getting dark.
So today I forced the issue. My body was picking up my gym bag and heading to the fitness center, while my head was screaming DON”T do it. I figured the only way that I was to do any real speed work would be to hit the treadmill. I knew that it would be hard. I knew that I had lost fitness in these past few weeks of un-motivated and purpose-less running. I had no idea that it had gotten to this point.
I set the incline (1.5%) and warmed up at a nice “easy” pace. Well, the numbers displayed were equivilent to what I used to call easy, but it sure didn’t feel easy. This was just the beginning. My first 800 was hard, but I reminded myself that the first one is always hard. This is especially true when the warm up is only a mile, as mine was today. My rest break was short for my usual Yasso regimen, but it is hard to drag it out on the ‘mill. The second 800 felt better but by the third 800 I was having a very hard time not cutting the workout short. “Just one more,” I reminded myself as I backed the recovery pace down further to allow for a longer rest. It helped and finished up with the following stats.
Warm Up: 0:09:06
800 Repeats: 0:03:53 – 0:03:55 – 0:03:53 – 0:03:56
Total Rest: 0:18:39
Cool Down: 0:08:39
Total Time: 0:43:25
Total Mileage: 5.0
Avg Pace: 0:08:41
I had high hopes that I would be able to maintain my training level of fitness in this period in between marathon training. Time is proving that this just isn’t a realistic goal. The demands of “training” require a focus and commitment that just isn’t there for me in the off period. I’ll be okay with this as long as I can minimize the loss of fitness to some extent. I just have to keep myself going for the next 3 weeks.
What do you do to keep yourself going and/or motivated during the off season?
I’m more like you. I have to force the motivation by getting really concerned about what happens if I DON’T work out. And it is nice to know that I’m not the only Yassoer out here in blogland. I skipped my Yassos on Tuesday – drat!
I like the new blog. I guess everyone is moving over to Jeff’s place lately.
What’s an off season? (Sorry I couldn’t resist)
Rob, you know the period of time between training – that is the “off season.” It’s just “off.” Maybe that is my strange mind working. (It’s okay that you couldn’t resist) Thanks for stopping by the new home.
Research says we lose fitness twice as fast as we gain fitness when we drop off the training – I just can’t let that happen because I want to go back to Boston – keep thinking about the goal and you’ll get there good luck!
Vince: Thanks for the comment. I will get out there and focus on the goal.