Fallow Field

Joy here...Okay, I'm sick to death of the fact that my latest posts have been about me whining and whinging about not being in shape or not hitting my workouts.

Me climbing up the 15km hill.

Ugh.  What a bore!

So the good news is that I've changed all that, and I've got a solid week of workouts under my belt (more on that below).

But now that I've gotten off the couch and gotten back into the swing of things, I have a moment to reflect on my month(s) of lethargy.  You see, I had a similar moment when I was doing my Ph.D.  In fact, a friend of mine was visiting Ottawa, and I can't remember if I had actually finished my Ph.D. at that point or was just close (it's all a bit of a blur, really), but this friend was still in the painful throes of hers.  And one of the roadway passes that she had to drive by to get from Toronto where she was finishing her dissertation to Ottawa where we lived was called "Fallow Field Road."  So we were chatting about the concept of the
fallow field.  As the descendent of generations and generations of peasant farmers, it is in my blood to know all about leaving a field fallow.  Basically you leave a field unseeded during the growing season so that it can renew itself and produce a better yield in the following year.  As my friend and I talked about the concept of the fallow field, we talked about it in relation to academic work and the necessity to take some "down time" from hard thinking and writing in order to just lay fallow for a while.  And while it is necessary to do this in order to be able to yield greater crops - i.e. have better ideas and produce more writing - it takes a while to have the maturity and perspective not to freak the freak out during those unproductive, "fallow" times.  Now I've been working in the thinking industry for some time now, so I don't freak out so much when I have "fallow" times with respect to my writing or thinking work.  I know enough to know that I'll have some down time, and get right back at it, refreshed and better, when I'm good and ready for it.

The Man hitting the speed bag at the gym.

But I guess I'm still new at this whole running/cycling/fitness thing to have the kind of maturity necessary to see the need for some "fallow" time with respect to sport too.  It's not just about refreshing my body, but also refreshing my mind.  I really don't think that people can sustain a "training" mentality solidly without taking some down time.

Now for me, I didn't really hit my training objectives this year, so I figured that I wouldn't need any down time.

But the truth of the matter is that whether or not I hit my training goals (which I didn't), I was still thinking about them and beating myself up about not making my training objectives or hitting my workouts.  As a result, I was still mentally drained and getting more and more drained with each passing missed workout.  The farther I got off my plan, the harder it became to get back on the plan.

And then in my last post I had some hard thoughts about whether or not I can even be coach-able.

Beautiful early morning cycling scenery!

Then I talked to my coach on FaceTime, and told him the truth of the matter.  I told him that I'd let myself go; I told him that I'd missed my workouts; I told him that I felt like a sack of potatoes; I told him that I was having motivation issues; I told him that I wanted to get back into the swing of things but didn't know how...

And he told me to take a deep breath and that he'd make a super easy, super conservative plan for me for the week just to get myself moving.  And most importantly, he told me that this is supposed to be fun.

I had forgotten the fun aspect of training.

How silly is that?

So with that crazy idea of FUN in my head, I got out the door and completed 3 runs, 2 strength sets at the gym, and 2 bike rides this week!  I ran into the sunset, dead lifted 50kgs, and met some new cycling friends.  I laughed as I cornered at 53km/hr going downhill on a hot Sunday morning on my bike.  I felt like a hero as I knocked off my little 5km run.  I grunted like a weight lifter at the gym.  And through it all I had fun.

That fallow field just might be starting to yield crops again!

Me doing some bicep curls at the gym!

Watch out...I may just be baaaaaack,
Over and out,
Joy

This past week's workout stats:
Monday:  day off (had a heart-to-heart with my coach)
Tuesday:  90 minute bike ride up the 15km hill and back again & 90 minute strength training
Wednesday:  20 minute run (approx. 3kms)
Thursday:  90 minute strength training
Friday:  day off
Saturday:  30 minute run (approx. 5kms)
Sunday:  90 minute bike ride up the 15km hill and back again
Monday:  20 minute run (approx. 3kms)