Rest Week… it’s been hard

Video: Morning grind (back when training)

I know it sounds crazy but rest week has been rough. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my rest. I enjoy lying down, napping, a little roll, and a little stretching. I enjoy these sort of rest and recovery activities whenever I’m training. But now as my season is winding down, I’m forcing myself to take a formal week off of training, something I've never really done before.

After my half marathon last Saturday, we had a final warm blast of summer up here in Toronto. So instead of going into full rest mode (as initially planned), I did some light bike riding and family hikes. By Wednesday I took my final bike ride for the week and started my week rest block from there, sort of... I still jumped into the pool Friday morning (because I’m paying for my swim pass) but my focus in the pool was to work on my technique and not to worry about doing laps and hitting splits. Instead I brought back out the pool toys and will be relearning my swim strokes the next few weeks.

Now that the weekend is here, as I’m used to getting out for a run and ride, I’m now confined to the bed, sofa, and recliner. Finally, the worst part of recovery week is now that I’ve got myself into a pretty good morning routine of waking up early and getting a morning workout in before work, like a person out of rehab I don’t want to relapse and return to sleeping late and waking up late. So here I am still setting my alarm early only to get up and work on some other “things”.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never thought getting some rest would be so hard.