Tender

A nice quiet day today. You know that feeling when you get back from a holiday and all you want to do it have another holiday? That is today sort of.

I am back at work today, my day job, not the coaching one, so the idea of waking up, going training and then hauling myself to work was a step too far. Particularly as when I woke up I felt like I had been nicely tenderized with a mallet. Having good active holiday time with the family is very fun, but boy can it be can be exhausting, everything hurt when I got out of bed this morning.

Given my tender state this morning, and the prospect of having to spend a day concentrating at work, I stayed in bed this morning and am planning on postponing my exercise plans until this afternoon. The past 10 days has been the most time I have had off work for over a year and so I am planning on easing myself back into the working routine. Don't want to rush things after all. Easy does it.

One of the nicest things I have learnt over the past 2 years of reduced exercise has been staying in bed when I need to. I won't lie, it is still a struggle, ignoring that compulsion in my brain that says you have to train and instead turning off the alarm and rolling over again. I never find that easy. But I have got better at recognising the morning's where I could do with the sleep and letting myself rest instead. If I was training and racing properly it would be a different story, but with what I am doing now, having the odd morning where I stay in bed really isn't the end of the world.

Of course the fine balance is making sure it is only the odd morning in bed and that the rest of the mornings I keep getting up and heading out the door. Obviously I don't need to force myself to train rain, hail or shine anymore, but I know from experience that I feel better when I do, and from a health point of view being active is always a good idea. As the saying goes, exercise is a habit, but it is a pretty easy habit to break if you get used to taking the easy option too often. So from that perspective I am always pretty selective with the mornings where I stay in bed. If there is a good reason (like this morning) then fine, but if I am just feeling a bit lazy then I will still tend to get myself out the door, I find it easier to maintain the habit that way.

Always nice to have a bit of a slack day though, particularly when you know the rest of the day could be challenging. Back to business as usual tomorrow though.