Remember this pond?

Time, the illusive thing just when I think I have enough of it for everything a meeting goes late, a phone call comes in and next thing you know my work day tips over the twelve hour mark. I find myself making dinner and going directly to bed all time in the day seems to have disappeared. This is what happened yesterday and why I didn’t have a post, by the time the last meeting was over it a quick dinner was made and my head was on the pillow.
 

Today I vowed to not that that happen, and literally set a time and decided I would leave work no matter where everything was at. I know most people do not have this luxury, but when you live and work at the same place an hour away sometimes is the exact thing I need. My original plan was a swim today but due to some circumstances my training partner couldn’t join me. Instead since it wasn’t raining and they are about to start blowing snow on the mountain I took the opportunity to revisit a run I have done many times over the summer and take the time to reconnect myself and what my motivators are for doing all of this.

We climbed over those

There is something about running the trails this time of year, the air is different, the woods are more exposed, the leaves cover many rocks just waiting for me to take the wrong step. As I progressed on the trail, it was slow going. My body is tired, I have hit the home stretch of the race season. It is a point I remember well from years as a ski racer. Everything is slowed a little, I am a little slower to warm-up, a little slower to get into it, and a little slower to recover. It’s totally normal for me and I realized today as I was struggling up a normally easy section of the trail. I have hit this part of the competition season, training harder isn’t always the best option, its time to train smarter.
 

For me smarter means taking some extra time to let me body recover, focus more on the sleep and nutrition. Don’t get me wrong training smarter doesn’t mean stopping or just sitting around, but it does mean I need to be more aware of how my body is reacting to workouts. This time of year really becomes a test of my patience with myself and what I can push myself to do in order to continue to excel and build without injury or compromising my health.
 

Colors are gone it’s the end of the Fall

Most importantly it’s recognizing that I could hit the wall if not vigilant, it has happened before and it is this time of the competition season when exhaustion starts to set in and the demons I have squelched all season rear their heads again. As they try to grasp control of my training, exhaustion sets in and the wall creeps up in the horizon. Instead of letting this happen once again in a new sport, it’s about taking it a little slower and letting my body settle into itself through this last stage of the season.
 

For those interested, the run today was a 10K up to the top of Bear Mountain then back down. An up and back I have done many times throughout the summer. Those that did the Spartan Beast will recognize many of the places.