Yesterday I got the call.
"The truck arrived early. It's here."
The truck. The semi truck full of holiday shopping goodies. Not a little UPS truck with a few boxes.
An entire semi truck filled to the top with pallets of boxes.
I said, "I'll be there first thing in the morning."
This is a physically demanding time of year for me. I have never been and will never be one of those business owner that sits back and watches people work. I won't let anyone do a job that I'm not willing to do myself. Trust me. I've done everything from helping customers to cleaning the bathroom to packing boxes.
I do what I do because I love it.
Being a triathlete and having my own business has challenges. One day after having a chat with Liz, I brought my garmin to the warehouse. In one day, I logged 7 miles; not to mention the picking and packing orders.
As hard as it is, it's the time of year that I enjoy most. I get to hang out in the warehouse and talk to people in greater depth than I usually do.
As soon as I heard the truck arrived, I opened training peaks to get an idea of what my training would be.
Of course, it was a brutal hill repeat day and strength training. I knew that I would get up early to do the hill repeats when I had the energy. I also knew that, realistically, the strength work might not make the cut.
This morning, I got up and got going as soon as I could. I had a mild breakfast of scrambled eggs & an apple with almond butter. This is one of my tried and true breakfasts that I know I can eat quickly, and it won't interfere with my workout....even a hard workout.
Because our roads and sidewalks still weren't clear from the snow, I planned to do this on the treadmill.
The workout was 10 x 30 second hill repeats on a steep hill and then another 10 x 30 second repeats....with very little rest between them.
Steep. What's steep on a treadmill? I wasn't sure, so I set the treadmill to 10%. I live in an area called The Hills. I'm always running up or down huge hills, so my perspective on "what's steep" tends to be skewed.
F*CK ME. It hurt. My legs were screaming at me. They were already uncomfortable from yesterday's workouts.
For the recoveries, I left the treadmill running at the speed and incline and hopped off to walk around.
My heart rate came down quickly, but it felt like as soon as I caught my breath....it was time to run again.
I started doubting myself.
Something's wrong with me. Maybe my head's not in the right place today. Why is this so hard?
I had a brief rest before the second set of 10.
This time, I decided to drop the incline to 8% and run faster. Every interval, I increased my speed.
My legs are hurting. During the recoveries, I felt like jelly legs. This time, my heart rate wasn't coming down much and each interval was harder and harder.
It was so tough that instead of running for my cooldown. I walked. I tried to run, but I had nothing left.
I did the workout. The entire time I was doubting myself, "There's something wrong. This shouldn't be this hard." I finished the workout completely spent.
I went upstairs and had "lunch" or "second breakfast" depending on your perspective. I could barely walk the flight of stairs. I needed to sit for a few minutes before I head to the warehouse, so I uploaded the workout. I told Liz that the workout was either crazy tough or my head wasn't in the game today.
She responded with something along the lines of "IT WAS RIDICULOUS, AND YOU DID IT!"
F*ckin' A. I was so preoccupied with everything that needs to be done for work, that I missed the fact that she hit me with a classic Challenge workout.
Funny thing about her challenge workouts, you don't usually feel excited or thrilled or energized that you did it. You just feel dead.
I showered, ate, packed my snack and head to the warehouse.
Nobody could mentally prepare me for the giant walls of boxes that needed to be opened and unpacked.
I got my instructions for where to start and listened to where I was supposed to unload different items.
After a few hours, one of the guys looked at me and said, "Maybe you should sit down for a few minutes."
I really wanted to sit down. All I wanted to do was get off my feet, but I knew if I sat down, I wasn't getting back up. I told him.
He sent me over to help pack today's orders.
When everyone started packing up to go home, they sent me home too. I wanted to stick around to help move racks to make room for tomorrow. (We're not even close to being done unpacking the pallets). They told me to go. I left on the promise that they were going home too.
With the busy season upon us and the truck arriving early, I was so glad that I had picked up some groceries yesterday, but I forgot a few key items. On my way home, I stopped at the store for those things.
When I got home, I forgot all the chores that I didn't do because I had to get to work early. All I wanted to do was sit down for a few minutes.
I did exactly that.
By the way, the strength training didn't make the cut.
PS: they lied to me. I left, and they finished unpacking. I got a text message saying so.
