Monday, March 21, 2011

Real life v. Triathlon life

 I work 5 days (at my full time job) per week. I look forward to my weekends. Since I work to live, not live to work, thinking about my weekend is what gets me through the week. I show up Monday expecting it to feel like a Monday. I show up Tuesday thinking "one day down". Wednesday is hump day and at the end of the day I revel in the fact the week is half over. Thursday I tell myself that Friday is pretty much the weekend, and on Friday I tell myself I am going to take it easy, because the weekends starts at 5.

The amount that some of train are equivalent to a second job. However, I do not typically workout all week counting down to my day off. I am not exactly sure but I think last week would  be considered a build week in preparation for my April 3rd race. As the tough workouts of the week progressed I was looking forward to  my recovery day, even more so when I realized I had a second brick on Friday. I knew I would need the recovery day between that brick and the long run on Sunday.

Ideally, in perfect triathlon world my recovery day would include sleeping in, wearing compression clothes all day, trips to get a massage, a few naps, a good soak, and other generally relaxing items on my itinerary. In my mind I think of laying on my deck while being fanned with palm leaves and fed grapes, I however am not sure of the connection to that and muscle recovery. That may be a mental health issue.

The biggest problem with this, other than not having the massage and spa available to me, is that sometime the worlds collide. Just because my triathlon life says its time to recover, doesn't mean that my real life agrees. For me Saturday, my recovery day, was spent more focused on real life than triathlon life. I woke up early to drive thirty minutes away to a rec center where I recently started teaching a kids karate class, then I returned home, had a snack, went to the in-laws to grab a few tools, returned home, mowed and edged the lawn, blew the remaining fall leaves and grass clippings, fired up the chain saw to cut down a tree, cleaned the deck, then went inside to clean the inside of the house. The only thing from my perfect triathlon vision that I did was wear recovery tights under my gi at karate.

The soreness I was feeling the night before was back. Yesterday I skipped church to sleep in a little and rest my legs. Then I went for my long run and went for speed work on the bike after a 45 minute recovery period. Today I woke up with legs still sore and it is swim drill day. I look forward to this day as partially a learning day and partially a good recovery day. However, since I think that my kick rhythm and leg position are slowing me down I did kick drills this morning. Needless to say my legs are still sore (and I have a brick tonight).

In the end, it would be nice if the two worlds lived in peaceful coexistence however sometimes I am faced to live with injury, illness, prison escapes, and chores. All I know right now is that unlike last year when i was anxious and trying to sneak in workouts during my taper, this time I am looking forward to it. i feel like I am earning it.


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3 comments:

Patrick said...

Luke, Hey they, hope all is well!

I relate to your two-worlds analogy minus my actually having to concern myself with prison escapes. Whether it is two worlds or ten we have in our lives; we need to learn to juggle them in a way that we feel good about. Otherwise we are not in control. And when we are in control, we earn what we get.

TRI714 said...

ugh !!! This is it sometimes ! good man.

Michael said...

I like the idea of fans and grapes :) unfortunately for most of us our real lives are not always glamorous and we really have to work to fit it all in.