Ever have one of those days where things are just blah? It was a beautiful sunshiney day yesterday, pretty nice weather for a fall day in Boston. And yet I was just completely in the dumps. The run went great on Sunday, and Rach and I had a really fun Sunday evening. But I woke up yesterday just totally bummed out.
I also noticed my sense of humor has been MIA from my posts for quite a while as well. I spent some time thinking about it last night before sleep, and this morning before I got myself going. I think there are some obvious reasons behind it.
- I am affected by the turning of the seasons. Sorta like a tree losing it's leaves or a dog growing in it's winter coat. Well, ok more like the dog I guess, because thankfully I'm not losing any hair up top, and shaving these days almost requires a chisel. When did my beard get the texture of brambles?
- The lack of true off-season training. While the road races help keep me motivated to run, the broken spoke on the Fuji is keeping me off the road bike. I can't even tell you the last time I swam. I have the mountain bike, but it gets dark so fast now, I barely have any time to ride it on weekdays unless I get up at the crack of dawn. And lately, that just ain't been happening. Rachelle has a plan, and we've done some of it, but not regularly, and not enough.
- Triathlons seem really far away right now, and that's anything but true. Last year, we started training just a bit more than 8 months out from the race, and I was barely able to finish in the time allowed. Our first big race this year is 2 1/2 months sooner, so 8 1/2 months out is... well, any time now. Yes, we have the base of fitness from last year, and I think we've been doing just enough to maintain most of that, but we need to start doing more pretty soon.
- I'm not sleeping enough. I was doing well for a while, going to bed early and getting up early, but lately that simply hasn't been happening. I'm going to try to adjust my sleep schedule to take advantage of the end of daylight savings time when it hits so that I can take advantage of more morning sunlight for running and riding.
I guess it could be worse, I could be Randy Quaid.
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Ben,
ReplyDeleteI've had those kind of days and even weeks. Sometimes there hard to bounce back from but I have faith that you can do it. As a fellow cycling nut, you can garner joy from the 2011 Tour de France route, its going to be awesome! I hope you can shake the funk and have some fun today.
Derek
Wow, you summed up how I have been feeling with the season change as well. The lack of light and chill in the air has brought out my hibernating inner cave-woman. For me it means wanting to eat too much, feeling blue, not wanting to run in the cold and dark, not feeling like biking on the trainer, and yeah, I can't remember my last chlorination!
ReplyDeleteHopefully, this too shall pass. We shall find the motivation to continue training!
Good luck, Ben.
Oh yeah, I have had those days, sometimes weeks, where I have the blahs...For me it is so hard to get up early for my workouts when it is dark out...and cold...I just want to stay under those covers!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck shaking the funk..
Ben
ReplyDeleteused to get that way each fall. this fall I signed up for a "bootcamp", meets MWF from 6 to 7 am and LOVE it...seems to have helped me over the sadness of not being able to ride as much....and, the great thing is that I just show up, someone else is planning what we all do (every day is killer but in a fun sadistic way- 50 pushups- yes sir!)
Mary in NC
Derek - Sometimes it is tough to snap out of these funks. I'm hopeful it won't take too long. And this years TdF route looks completely nuts in a good way! Did you see the course elevation of the two big mountain stages? Holy heck thats a lot of black!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous from PSU - I'm hopeful my motivation will be my involvement in the weight watchers at work class. I HATE it when I dont lose at least 3 pounds a week, even when I know I haven't put in the exercise or food discipline to do that. I did manage to get to the gym last night, so hopefully I'm going to move on beyond the funk.
Caratunk Girl - You helped Rach shake the funk by mentioning snow in your blog. She's so excited for winter and snow already. Sh's clearly insane. That said, sometimes these things last 2 or 3 weeks for me, sometimes I go straight to the bottom in a single 24-48 hour period and start crawling back out right away. Hopefully this is one of those short ones.
Mary in NC - The bootcamp is an intriguing idea. Our team president runs one regularly, but I am TERRIBLE at most general basic exercise due the upper body strength/weight ratio. the whole group would likely suffer at my expense. 50 pushups? More like 10. or 8. LOL. But I would still think about trying one.