Sometimes I just need a "mental day off".
A day to get my head straight. Or as the great Cincinnati Reds TV announcer George Grande calls it - "a check-up from the neck-up". Maybe I need to find my focus. Maybe I know my body really needs a break even if I don't want to give it one. But usually for me a mental day is just a day to get some sleep. A day to go straight home and not think about running or working out. Just rest.
I do some kind of workout almost every day. I usually run five or six days a week. I usually lift weights two or three days a week. I try to make it to as many yoga and pilates classes as I can. I also try to fit in other core workouts when possible. I try to take at least one day off a week, usually Saturday or Sunday. Or both if we have a busy weekend.
The problem is during the week. I do all of this in the morning after I have been at work all night. Now, getting all of these things done takes a little bit of time. Add in the fact that according to my wife I am a "social butterfly" and I spend alot of time talking to people at the Y. So by the time I am finished at the gym and get home and get to bed it is already late in the day. I usually wake up when Staci and the kids get home. Which means I get about five hours of sleep. Maybe. Right now we are really busy so some days I have to get up earlier than usual.
One problem I have is my tendency to over train. I tend to do more than I need to do because I feel like I have to make up for all of the years that I didn't exercise or take care of my body. I am also not very patient. I am training for my marathon that is in December and I feel like I should already be in marathon shape. I know these ideas are wrong but they are hard to turn off. So the fact that I don't feel like I am progressing enough has made my confidence drop even though I have been working extremely hard.
My physical state is affecting my mental state. While that is something that I can usually get through, I can't right now. Why? After much self reflection I realized that the problem is, well, I am freaking tired! My body is tired from all of the workouts. My mind is tired from all of the things that are keeping me so busy. And oh by the way, I am sleepy. I haven't been getting very much sleep lately. One day of short sleep turns into two days of short sleep and I can never seem to catch up.
So today my plan is to go home and sleep. I do have to get up early but at least I will be going to bed early. Hopefully this "mental day off" will get me closer to being back on track. So for now I will forget about all of these issues and work on getting home and getting back to where I need to be physically and mentally. As for Friday's workout? It's gonna be AWESOME!!
A day to get my head straight. Or as the great Cincinnati Reds TV announcer George Grande calls it - "a check-up from the neck-up". Maybe I need to find my focus. Maybe I know my body really needs a break even if I don't want to give it one. But usually for me a mental day is just a day to get some sleep. A day to go straight home and not think about running or working out. Just rest.
I do some kind of workout almost every day. I usually run five or six days a week. I usually lift weights two or three days a week. I try to make it to as many yoga and pilates classes as I can. I also try to fit in other core workouts when possible. I try to take at least one day off a week, usually Saturday or Sunday. Or both if we have a busy weekend.
The problem is during the week. I do all of this in the morning after I have been at work all night. Now, getting all of these things done takes a little bit of time. Add in the fact that according to my wife I am a "social butterfly" and I spend alot of time talking to people at the Y. So by the time I am finished at the gym and get home and get to bed it is already late in the day. I usually wake up when Staci and the kids get home. Which means I get about five hours of sleep. Maybe. Right now we are really busy so some days I have to get up earlier than usual.
One problem I have is my tendency to over train. I tend to do more than I need to do because I feel like I have to make up for all of the years that I didn't exercise or take care of my body. I am also not very patient. I am training for my marathon that is in December and I feel like I should already be in marathon shape. I know these ideas are wrong but they are hard to turn off. So the fact that I don't feel like I am progressing enough has made my confidence drop even though I have been working extremely hard.
My physical state is affecting my mental state. While that is something that I can usually get through, I can't right now. Why? After much self reflection I realized that the problem is, well, I am freaking tired! My body is tired from all of the workouts. My mind is tired from all of the things that are keeping me so busy. And oh by the way, I am sleepy. I haven't been getting very much sleep lately. One day of short sleep turns into two days of short sleep and I can never seem to catch up.
So today my plan is to go home and sleep. I do have to get up early but at least I will be going to bed early. Hopefully this "mental day off" will get me closer to being back on track. So for now I will forget about all of these issues and work on getting home and getting back to where I need to be physically and mentally. As for Friday's workout? It's gonna be AWESOME!!
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