I took the month of October off. Lemme splain what that means and what it doesn't mean.
Taking the month off from training means Coach Liz and I said our emotional good-byes (not really). For the month, I did whatever I wanted to without being analyzed; without having to hit any zones; without hitting any paces.
Liz gave me guidelines "take AT LEAST X days off from running".
You don't have to tell me twice.
And, "Don't do any exercise longer than X"
Alrighty.
And, "HAVE FUN".
DONE and DONE.
It doesn't mean sitting on my ass doing nothing.
The first week of Oct got a little crazy. I was on vacation. Since my race was 9/30, immediately after Mr. Tea and I went into FULL ON CRAZY MODE.
We ate dessert at every meal and sometimes FOR a meal. I knew we sunk to a new low, when I was under the covers, in bed, eating ice cream.
THAT'S how you do time off.
When we returned from vacation, I'd had about as much sugar as I could handle. I couldn't even think about having anymore junk.
I got right back into my normal eating habits.
Then, the end of the month rolled around.
It was my birthday.
And the peoples rejoiced.
My birthday weekend started on Friday. By Sunday night, I was exhausted. I couldn't laugh any more. I couldn't eat any more food. I was done.
I was ready to start training again. I was ready to start eating right again.
That's how I know I've gotten enough rest (physical and mental).....when I'm excited about training again.
Liz and I started up again on Nov 1st.
WELCOME TO the "GETTIN' CUT, GETTIN' BUTT" portion of my training.
Liz and I walked through the next few months of training.
I believe I'm heading into a breakthrough year in 2018.
I sat down to jot down a few goals. Then, I wrote down my plan to get there.
I decided to lean down a bit. Lose some fat. During Oct, I started hitting the weights hard. I made a couple of other changes as well. I went back to my notes from when I worked with Dina. I decided that I could switch some things up and have a big impact on my body fat.
These changes had an immediate impact on my body composition. So much so that Mr. Tea even commented on it. I noticed my clothes were fitting looser and my ROKA swimsuits (which run ridiculously small) were no longer allowing butt chub to hang out.
I hopped on the bike and did an FTP test. My test blew away all other tests and was even stronger than back in 2015 when I lost over 26lbs.
I'm heading into a really great year, I tell you.
Given that we have a looooong race early in 2018, Liz thought it was best that we don't do a single sport focus. I have goals for this race. I shared them with Liz, and she said, "very doable".
I know that just because a goal is "doable" doesn't mean it will be easy. I told her what I felt my challenges would be with the race and where I would excel. She told me a few things that I'll need to be aware of for this particular race.
We have a plan. I wrote down what paces I need to train to in order to reach my goals. There are going to be times when I know that I'm going to doubt myself, like when fatigue sets in.
Here we go again. I'll be stepping on the emotional roller coaster in about a month. Are you ready for the ride?
Because, you about to see something you ain't NEVER seen before!
My Spirit Animal