November 8, 2013

Call it Rest.

Call it Off-Season.

Call it Recovery.

Call it Torture.

Call it Divine.

Call it whatever you want to call it, but endurance athletes are a bunch of whack jobs. Absolutely Bat Sh!t crazy.

For most people, rest is natural and normal. It takes very little effort to talk them into doing “nothing”.  So REST is normal and MOTION is abnormal. In western society we’ve made an absolute art out of it, and hence the obesity epidemic.

For endurance athletes, we’ve taught our bodies that MOTION is normal REST is abnormal. Rest is HARD.

But we’re still human, even if we are nuts. We know that to get physically stronger, one must rest. Allow the body to absorb the stresses place upon it so we can start anew and get better. But it’s HARD.

In the 9 years I’ve been doing this stuff, MOST years I have gone into the off season kicking and screaming and begging (whining too a bit I suspect). Begging my coach to allow me to go longer, harder, and do more than I should.

This year was different. I welcomed off season with  open arms. After racing 24 hours in 10 weeks, I was done.  5 weeks later of mostly screwing around I am starting to get the spark back. It’s just a glimmer, just a flicker, something you see out the corner of your eye. Nothing more. Too busy catching up with work and family to notice 5 weeks have slipped by.

I spent some time talking with a triathlete hopeful tonight. She’s hoping to do her first Sprint this summer and had many questions. The excitement and nervousness she had in her voice was awesome. It is something that is a long distant memory for me, but it reminded me how utterly cool this stuff is.

The spark became a flicker.

A flicker a flame.

Time to start planning the 2014 season.

What do you have in store for 2014? Share it. Make it real. Start right now.