The Case Against the Off Season

Does anyone else have this problem?  You're training.  Everything is rolling along smoothly.  You've got the 4:30 am wake up call so ingrained in your brain that you don't even need to set the alarm anymore.  You're efficient.  Training gets done.  You make it to work on time with coffee in hand.  You're productive at work.  You go home at the end of the day, make a fabulous meal to feed your family, and relax before bed at 7:30 pm.  You nail all the events laid out in your plan for the season.   

And then you take a recovery period. 

You sleep in a little here and there.  You have days completely off of training.  (For those like me who find this difficult to comprehend.. it does actually happen to some people!  You actually do nothing for an entire 24 hours outside of normal work/ eating/ sleeping.)  You don't follow a schedule, but rather just do what you feel like doing.  (Take a minute to absorb that...)

And suddenly, everything is out of whack. 

You don't sleep well (because you've screwed up your body clock).  You gain weight.  You're lethargic at work due to lack of endorphins in your bloodstream and no amount of caffeine seems to help combat this.  You are completely uninspired to cook, clean or even bother to watch whatever crap is on television in the hour before bed.  You can't fall asleep without herbal sleepytime tea. 

The remedy?  Don't take an off season. 

I've decided it's useless.  I'm in a crappy mood.  I don't get out of bed at 4:30 am, but then I lay there awake for 2 hours until I have to get ready for work.  I bark orders around the house and am annoyed by every little thing.  And then to top it all off, I'm supposed to start marathon training this week and I absolutely can't figure out how I'm going to squeeze everything in to my day (I'm supposed to run how far in the morning before work???) despite evidence from the last 5 years that I can, in fact, fit everything in, and feel amazingly better when I do! 

So while I stare blankly at my training log as if it's written in Chinese, I can only sigh and remind myself that next week begins my fall season which is packed with completely amazing events every weekend through, well, February.  I so look forward to this time of year and I know it will give me the motivation I need to kick it in gear.  I've got sprint triathlons, trail races, half marathons, a 5k (which you ALL should be doing... http://www.run4sal.com/), a 10k birthday swim, a 60 mile walk for cancer research (Please donate!!  www.the3day.org/goto/heatherp), a marathon, a 50k, and a trip across the Grand Canyon.  Not in any specific order.  One of the (many) joys of living in Arizona is that our year is backwards from everyone else.  We start living in September so that by May we are ready to return to the hibernative caverns filled with a little necessity called:  air conditioning. 

So as summer turns to fall, my mind and my heart are ready to get back out there and see what I'm made of.  This little break has gone on long enough (dang near 8 weeks!)  Fall will be filled with flowing reports of fun, family, and a little dirt from the trails to keep you entertained.