Easy Street

Before I went to Santa Rosa, my coach warned me:

In an email dated 8/16/12-
Also, you might as well start wrapping your head around taking the 2-3 weeks between SR and the beginning of training VERY easy and light. I'm talking 15, 20, 25 for those weeks. Maybe not even that much mileage. I know it's frightening. 

And, after I pretended like I didn't read that...

In an email dated 8/21/12-
Yes, next week begins a couple weeks of Oh Shit! I'm Going to Lose ALL My Fitness! ...which you won't. 

I was DREADING these two weeks. All I could think about was how I've been working hard to build up my base and how awesome I had been feeling on my runs. It's easy to take a rest when you're feeling like shit or your runs are shit... but when you're feeling good? It's like a death sentence. 

So, after the race, I stomped around for a few days. Stupid rest weeks. I shook my fists in the air and bitched that I'm not fast enough to need rest weeks! Only speedy bitches need rest! The pace I run is equivalent to rest weeks! I complained to the KoB about these goddamn rest weeks. He annoyingly always agrees with Coach. Hmph. And, finally it did start to make sense. I am getting ready to go through a 22ish week training plan for a marathon. Two weeks of forced laziness before that is a good idea. Otherwise, I might be wanting to blow my brains out at week 8 instead of week 15. 

And then sometime around last Friday (more specifically, I think it was 6am, when I was STILL IN BED.) I was like... uhhhh... rest weeks kinda kick ass. I had been thinking about this the wrong way. Instead of thinking about how I was missing out on running... I should have been thinking about what little luxuries I can enjoy these two weeks. For instance, I can sleep in! I can bail on a run! I can drink a whole goddamn bottle of wine on a Tuesday night! I can stay up late! I can be a NORMAL person for two weeks! So, I've been embracing this coach-imposed laziness. I'm a little nervous that I'm in for a rude awakening next week when I have to go back to getting up every morning at 4:30. But, for now... I've still got a few more days left with my snooze button and I'm going to enjoy it.

Me. On Monday.

There is one frightening thing I've discovered though.... how much I can sleep. Most nights, I'm still getting into bed around 8:30/9:00pm and I will sleep HARD until 7am. Yesterday morning when I woke up after sleeping for 11 hours, I felt like I could have slept for another 2-3 hours. I had a fleeting thought that maybe I had contracted mono or something. And even with 10-11 hours of sleep one day, I'll still be sleepy by 8:30 the next night. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME? 

Anyway, all this to say, I am so freaking excited to get started with my marathon training. Training for a race is my favorite thing and this time around I'm committed to putting all my heart, soul, and body into it. 

And if anyone is interested in getting drunk with me and/or keeping me out late on a weeknight, then you better give me a call before Sunday, or ya know, I think I'm free February 22, 2013.