That line from The Outlaw Josie Wales seems very appropriate right about now. Sometimes you have a week where every workout hurts, your muscles feel fatigued, your soul unrevived, your splits slow, your technique heading towards hell in a handbasket. It's not surprising that it's this week, I guess. My husband is out of town all week (perils of marrying a pilot) and I never sleep well when he's not here. It's like my entire body system goes on Ultra-High-Alert and I wake up when the house creaks or the guinea pigs breathe a little too loudly. Normally, I don't think of myself as a woman who clings to my man for protection like Sondra Locke in a Clint Eastwood Movie, and with several years of martial arts and some hours on a firing range, I'm probably about as prepared to defend the fortress as anyone, but I have to admit that I sleep easier when The Man is around.
So I'm tired, for starters. And when you're a one-woman household with six animals (two of them geriatric) and two homeschooling, energetic kids (along with the accompanying chores), there's more to get done then there are hours in a day. Fitting in the workouts requires a lot of hoop-jumping, transportation, and an awesome network of good friends. One kid goes to a friend's house, the other to a dance class, and I jet out the door of the dance studio in my running shoes for a quick 6 miler before I have to pick her up. Ignore incredulous stares of sleek moms with coiffed hair and actual outfits (not thrown-on athletic clothes), take a quick spit-bath in the dance studio bathroom and we're off to violin lessons. Later on it's a DVD for the kids and I head to the basement and my bike trainer with the latest installment of 24.
The advantage of having done this training thing for more than a few years is that I know the slumps come and the slumps will go. I know if I go a little easier on myself (instead of freaking out and pushing myself harder as I might've done a decade ago) that I'll get through this, I will no longer feel like I'm swimming through molasses or running with a ball and chain attached to each foot. When the going gets tough, the triathlete still heads out the door, and eventually the going gets easier again.
In the meantime, I'm off to eat some breakfast with Hell.
5 comments:
I can't sleep either when my husband is out of town! It's like I'm the last line of defense if anything goes wrong (even though we have two dogs), so I'd better be on full alert. Either that, or I'm finally used to the MAC truck snoring and can't sleep without hearing it.
great post. I can certainly relate....it's nice to be reminded to just keep plugging through. BTW I've found that it's much easier to have a slump when you are not running, riding outside in good weather.
I've definitely started to "get" this more lately - what was difficult a month or so ago, seems easier now - need to keep reminding myself when pushed to a new limit.
Thanks so much for the encouraging words about IMFL. Means a lot to have folks who have been through it - and know what it is like. Hope we can meet up at a race sometime...
I admire folks like you that can juggle it all. I am single with no kids so I have nothing to complain about when the training schedule gets hectic. Onward and upward!
when everything seems harder than it used to be/should be, i think it helps me to try and remove myself (at least mentally) from the situation and think about #1 why did i start this pursuit and #2 i don't have to be (and can't be!) perfect -
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