Yesterday's Failure.
I started the week off strong enough.
I put together back-to-back days of solid workouts. The numbers looked on-track and I was feeling good. The next day I didn't feel so hot, so I backed off and cut it short, hoping to bounce back for the remainder of the week.
The day after that I didn't even get on the bike. I could barely walk up the stairs. It wasn't the plague, but it was just as insidious. I just burned myself out.
I hadn't gotten the best sleep, and the grinding noise my Wahoo Kickr makes these days isn't super motivating, but it was really just a case of me overdoing it for short-term gain instead of staying the course and playing the long game.
It's not about training. That ship sailed long ago, between the less-than-inspiring calendar the Arctic Bike Club Road Division planned and the coronavirus that made all plans pretty much moot, I had no real interest in working towards anything specific.
It's really about sanity. Riding the trainer keeps me sane and level, which are key attributes to working out on remote radar sites. I'll admit, some of my co-workers are what sociologists would clinically call "bat-shit crazy", which seems to work for them. But for me, I have to do what I've done for the last fifteen or so years- grind away my frustrations and ride the subsequent endorphin rush for as long as I can.
Burning myself out doesn't really work well within the confines of that strategy. So, I need to be a little more careful for the next couple weeks, especially as the aforementioned coworkers start climbing the walls. I need to keep my own little core of sanity going, if only so I can hold out for a couple more weeks.
I'm not going to beat myself up about yesterday's failure, because today I bounced back and righted the ship. I'm also going to try not to make that sort of thing a habit. It's all too easy to find an excuse not to turn off the TV and get out of the recliner. It's all too easy to hit the snooze button 40 or 50 times. It's all too easy to quit, but I know what that leads to.
I don't want to go there.
I put together back-to-back days of solid workouts. The numbers looked on-track and I was feeling good. The next day I didn't feel so hot, so I backed off and cut it short, hoping to bounce back for the remainder of the week.
The day after that I didn't even get on the bike. I could barely walk up the stairs. It wasn't the plague, but it was just as insidious. I just burned myself out.
I hadn't gotten the best sleep, and the grinding noise my Wahoo Kickr makes these days isn't super motivating, but it was really just a case of me overdoing it for short-term gain instead of staying the course and playing the long game.
It's not about training. That ship sailed long ago, between the less-than-inspiring calendar the Arctic Bike Club Road Division planned and the coronavirus that made all plans pretty much moot, I had no real interest in working towards anything specific.
It's really about sanity. Riding the trainer keeps me sane and level, which are key attributes to working out on remote radar sites. I'll admit, some of my co-workers are what sociologists would clinically call "bat-shit crazy", which seems to work for them. But for me, I have to do what I've done for the last fifteen or so years- grind away my frustrations and ride the subsequent endorphin rush for as long as I can.
Burning myself out doesn't really work well within the confines of that strategy. So, I need to be a little more careful for the next couple weeks, especially as the aforementioned coworkers start climbing the walls. I need to keep my own little core of sanity going, if only so I can hold out for a couple more weeks.
I'm not going to beat myself up about yesterday's failure, because today I bounced back and righted the ship. I'm also going to try not to make that sort of thing a habit. It's all too easy to find an excuse not to turn off the TV and get out of the recliner. It's all too easy to hit the snooze button 40 or 50 times. It's all too easy to quit, but I know what that leads to.
I don't want to go there.
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