The Beauty of "Off Days" in Training

There’s nothing like waking up on Monday after a rough weekend of workouts, rolling onto the floor, and relaxing into Shavasana pose.  High ranking monks claim Shavasana is the most important part of yoga because it’s when we let the fruits of our labor sink into the fiber of our muscle, bones and mind.  The real work is in the relaxation.  The recovery is in the intention.

Then again, monks aren’t training for an Ironman.

In reality, my “off day” started early this morning with a 30 minute easy run and will end with an hour of light bike training while I watch another crappy documentary, like HIStory.  I have mixed emotions about the intensity of training because, quite frankly, I am a big fan of monks!

But I get what’s going on and can already see how it’s paying off.  A year ago mixing in a “light 30 minute run” would have been laughable.  Today, it was a nice way to start, even though it’s a holiday.

I used to lift weights a lot in college.  There were streaks when I’d lift 6 days a week for an hour and a half, including ab work, etc, but this weekend was probably one of my most impressive combinations of endurance workouts in . . . oh . . . ever.

It started Friday night with an hour bike ride on the trainer, which was mainly interval work and, while I realize an hour is just the beginning, that hard ass seat no picnic.

Saturday, I met the IMWI crew at 7:20 for some video shooting, then I and climbed on a Spin bike for an hour and a half, which included a pretty tough Spin class in the middle.  At 9:00 we stripped down and went for a 20 minute run to complete the brick.

Sunday was a tempo run and to make a long story short we had a warm up and cool down, but still covered 9.5 miles in 80 minutes (8.24 overall pace) which was pretty tough, but felt good.

We all want to go fast, so, light runs, like this morning’s, are in some ways the toughest.  That’s another reason why I will be coaching the Couch to 5k group a couple times a week.  It forces me to slow down.  To think about form.  And to let go of my ego.

In an “Ironman Monk” sort of way I am learning how the light workouts are Shavasana for triathletes.  They remind our muscles, bones, and mind what we’ve learned, but don’t wear us out in the process.  I think, after some deliberation, the monks would endorse this philosophy.