Hardest Training Day(s) of the cycle...

The hardest training day in the whole calendar is the day I take off.  It's the most difficult mentally, even if it is the most beneficial physically. 

I know, I know, to avoid over training we need to have easy days AND rest days.  The athletic gains we make are actually made while resting, not while exercising.  Rest helps our body recharge and ward off injuries and illness.

Etc.

Blah blah blah.

BUT, when you have two kids on spring break and one of them has turned into an extraordinarily high maintenance child (we're working on that one), and every 2.37 seconds the word "Mommy" "Mother" "Momma" "MOM!"  "MuhTHER!" or some derivation thereof is uttered at various volumes, and your main source of stress relief is working out, NOT alcohol consumption, a rest day feels like the worst kind of torture.

And, an unplanned rest day is the worstest torture of all.  For example, today I HAD planned to do what I consider "active rest" -- i.e., swim, probably 3000 yards or so.  My body does not particularly consider that a workout, and I don't use my legs at all so they get the day off.  Alas, like so many other training plans these days, that went away and today turned into a "take Lim to the orthodontist unexpectedly, scramble to get a surprise together for Matthew, race to get Bim to practice at one end of town and Lim to physical therapy at the other, and zoom home to put the finishing touches on the children-driven surprise for M."  (Insert 43 "MuhTHERS" here in the time it took to write that sentence.)

Fine.  I'll take the damn day off.

Now, Lim just got rubber bands on one side of her mouth, aka the same side of her head that hurts continuously too... and if you've ever had rubber bands you know that that side of your jaw feels like someone hit you with a 2x4 several times, for several days.  So, an already "on the edge" kid personality-wise just got drop kicked into the abyss, as the perfect storm of constant headache, no physical activity, lack of solid food, and now a wonking pain in her mouth combines to create LIM, THE UBER GREMLIN.

So, not only am I feeling like the broad side of an expanding barn that is rapidly losing fitness (yeah yeah, it's only one day off blah blah blah... every triathlete reading this is nodding in understanding right now), I am also the bullseye encrusted target of Lim's (justifiably) sparkling personality.

Thank GOD Bim is in happy-ville these days.

Now, I don't know about you other tri-geeks out there, but on my rest days I spend a lot of the day mentally going over a checklist of what I am doing for training in the next few days.  Mentally torturing myself in a way, as I think about how great it will be to kick my own a** for several hours tomorrow in a run bike brick, or do a longer run and ride the bridges this weekend.  I think about it over and over again, probably hoping that if I think about it enough it will actually HAPPEN, and nothing will cause a major training-reorganization, again.

And, of course, sane or not, there is always the dogging notion that everything I eat on a day off forms an immediate muffin top and bike padding.   Squish.  Shut up.  I hear it.  SHUT. UP.  Maybe you should just grab a quick spin.  SIGH.  Don't you come with a mute button?!

So, yes, we insane triathlete types train insanely, and everyone oohs and aahs at our heavy training days and weeks.  But, I submit that when we are in the throws of serious training (especially Ironman training, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03dFMG8nR4

(pardon the language)

the hardest thing for us to handle mentally is actually NOT doing any training.

And I bet our spouses/partners/children just LOVE when we take time off.  That is probably only topped by the two weeks of taper prior to an Ironman race, when most of us have the personalities of wet cats and YOU are the barking dog.  Six months of heavy training interspersed with a few days here and there of mental stress, aka days off, and then we back off of mileage AND have the actual event looming.  Maybe they should give survivors' medals to the families, not finisher medals to the athletes.

So, I will now waddle upstairs to find a pouting Lim, who is angry because I am actually taking five minutes to myself, and herd her and a bubbly Bim into the truck to start the afternoon rodeo.  Only 14 more hours until my rest day ends and I can get some training done.


Assuming I can talk myself off the cliff and stay away from the trainer until bed time, of course.

;-)

...that's my why, what's yours?