Taking a Well Needed Rest

There is a reason why I stop tri season at the end of August. Every pool around here shuts down for two weeks until after Labor Day. I learned this the hard way two years ago and lost a lot of swim form leading up to my last tri of that season. Major bummer!

But this is a good thing now. My body is tired. I don't "have" to swim anymore. I "want" to, but in reality, I "can't" unless I want to jump into Long Island Sound (yuck!).

And then there is something that I kept to myself the last 2-3 weeks:
My body was REALLY tired. I wasn't recovering like I used to! Early this season I could just go and go and go and go and recover fully within 24-48 hours. After Rhode Island and then a big training weekend in Lake Placid in July, my recovery time started to change for the worse. A Wednesday morning hammerfest on the bike took me until Saturday to recover from. Eventually I was hitting the point where I wasn't recovered from the previous weekend until the next weekend! 7 days to recover fully? OUCH!

And that right there meant that my body had one last race in it. Eventually the large base that you build up runs out. My base was enormous from all of the easy, huge volume work that I did back in January-March and it held out until now. I think what I did was perfect for this season. It shows that the larger the base, the bigger you can go.....but eventually it will wear out, which is a good thing! You can't go forever! You need to stop and heal your body in the offseason.

Have you ever heard of accumulated base? It's not just one base building block that gives your body that huge engine. It is those YEARS of base building and speed work that once you take a break, and let all of that stress marinade and sink into the deep core of your body, that that is where your true speed and power comes from.

This off season, I am going to get out of shape, and it is going to be frustrating. But come next winter when I hit my first short running race, I know that my running form will still be crap, but yet I will prolly PR that sucker because this season will have fully sunk into my muscles. And then imagine how much bigger you will be able to go next year? And the year after that?

Stay consistent my friends!

Mentally, I am still sharp and am ready to tackle the NYC Marathon on November 7th. However, my body is wondering if this is still possible. I woke up this morning and I think my body finally turned the corner. I was up all night going through the "evacuation" stage of recovery. This means that my body has realized, "Hey, I don't need all of this fluid for survival!" FLUSH!

And now my legs are still sore, but not as sore as yesterday. I could hardly walk yesterday! I kept sending messages over to Mandy @ Caratunk Girl (she just rocked her first HIM @ Timberman) on facebook exclaiming that amputation was the only remedy!

What a difference a night makes! Last night I went to Outback, had a big ole steak and a glass of wine. This morning, I am starting to see the light. Perhaps a short run is in order tomorrow?