Not only are we seeing a drought in the weather pattern, but I have fallen into an exercise drought as well. Not a don’t feel like doing my workouts drought, but an exercise just to maintain the wasteline drought. With work, heat, and my race season essentially over, I’m struggling.
At first I thought, if I actually schedule a time to meet someone to workout, then it will happen. Nope, working late, can’t go. Then I thought, ok, I just need 30 minutes of exercise per day, that’s easy right? Not as easy as you think when it is dark at 5AM, I’m in the office at 7AM, it is scorching at noon, and I’m exhausted by the time I get out of work at 6PM. How did I use to do this? By the time I get to the weekend, when I can actually make it to the group ride launch time, after a couple of months since my last key race, I am so out of shape there is no way I could keep up, much less enjoy a 40+ mile day.
So, I try a re-entry into beach volleyball, my former life before triathlon and cycling. Body says NO WAY JOSE! Hmmm, so I am back to the drawing board. I have one 30 minute jog under my belt this week, and heading into the Holland Hundred on Saturday for the metric century. I am looking forward to and counting on the gang to keep me going. What comes next, I’m not sure, but I’m sure my body is appreciating the rest and will rev itself back up when it is ready…at least I hope it does!
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All it takes for me to hit the struggling point is a break in routine, which happened over a recent two-week vacation. Yikes, did I fall off the wagon–not a good thing with some runs and tris coming up quickly. Just starting to get back on track with intentional discipline and motivation. The little extra enticement I dangle out there for myself is tennis – I love it, don’t play nearly as much as I’d like and it’s that extra bit of exercise variety that gets me going again.
My trick is to sign up for an event to force me to stay up with my exercise. Even if it’s shorter than what I’m used to, less competitive or a less intense event, it still helps me do something because I hate the feeling of even running a 5k race when I haven’t stayed up with my running… it’s a painful 26 minutes!!!