Rest Day Jitters

I wasn't feeling 100% on Saturday so decided to take the morning ride off and make up for it later in the day and sleep in instead. It turned out to be a pretty good morning to sleep in because once I got up I had lots to do and started off my day flying and just kept that momentum going (unfortunately to work). The reason I bring this up is because I found out that while I missed the ride people were talking about me. Discussing how I never take rest days and am training so hard these days.

If you've talked to me lately, work isn't going 100% so I've had to put in many 12-14 hour days in the lab. Mix that with 2-3 hours of training a day and still trying to eat/sleep/play, I've felt like I've been burning the candle at both ends. With the triathlon club, often we have mailing list going and its been brought to my attention that many times I will reply to a thread after people go to sleep, and then again before they wake up. Backing up 6-7 hours of sleep a night for two weeks on end was killing me. 

I thought about this conversation with my friends during an easy ride Sunday and decided it was true, my riding was getting a little flat with fatigue and I needed a rest. Turns out I hadn't taken a full day off since April 10th (granted a few days were simply 30 minute swims). Monday became my rest day. 

Who ever said rest days were easy? I was sitting in lab all day just dancing around in my seat. It was funny, even though I often don't get in any exercise until the evening, knowing that I wasn't going to exercise at all was getting me all riled up. I even had talk myself out of going to the gym and doing a simple ab workout (would would have undoubtedly turned into a leg workout as well). 

It still wasn't the most restful day because of work, but at least physically it wasn't too strenuous. I decided I've taken one day, I might as well make this rest day count since I probably won't take any more until my taper for Shawnigan in two weeks. That being said, I went to the gym Tuesday morning and did stretches as well as some leg stuff but then took the rest of the day off. One thing I didn't enjoy much at all though was sleeping. Not getting in any exercise all day I slept terribly. Took me a long time to sleep (by Vince standards), and was up tossing all night. Thats one thing I really like about hard training days, I'm out like a light until my alarm goes off (or often much later). 

What really surprised me was how easy skipping day 2 was than day 1. Breaking a pattern was so simple it was scary. Then again, getting into one happens just as quickly for me as well. 

But here I am, two days more rested and ready to take on a big weekend. Got my 9.5 hours of catch up sleep last night and am ready to go. 

Bring it.