Learning when to rest.

I didn't run today ... and the guilt was enormous. Even though I worked out every other day this week except Thursday, the thought of taking another rest day this week made me feel bad.
I was exhausted at work today, but I think that was due to the allergens in the air ... after it has been really hot and the winds start blowing, the pollen just seems to run right up my nose and into my sinus cavities. So when I got home I just lay on the couch for a few minutes and fell asleep ... when I woke up I decided it was to be a rest day.
Another reason for today being a rest day is that I have 8 miles planned for the morning. The day before a long run should be a short run day or a rest day. So hopefully that means I will run well tomorrow.

So now I just need to find a way not to feel guilty for resting and just enjoy my rest day. Obviously I know it's good for me ... so why can I not just accept it.

Any advise would be wonderful :)
Keep running my fellow runners ... or rest ... depending on the day!

And on the forth day I shall rest ... I can't wait till the seventh.

I woke up this morning with an exhausted body and a few sore muscles after yesterday's run. I wasn't 100% sure if I would workout today but I ate a salad for breakfast just in case. Sure enough 2hours after breakfast I was ready to go.
I decided to do some cross training today. I did 30 minutes on the sit down bike and then some strength training for my abs and obliques as well as some dips and pull-ups for my upper body. Having done that, tomorrow is most definitely a mandatory rest day  :)
May the awesome workouts continue!

Ginger Bread Houses :)

Today is a rest day from the gym. I woke up and my body was feeling sore and exhausted. I used to plan my rest days (I get 1-2 per week), but I found that my body wouldn't follow that schedule and want to workout on rest days and rest on workout days. So now I just wing it ... the only rule is that they cannot be two days in a row unless I am sick.

So today I went to Bekki's house to build a ginger bread house. It was a lot of fun! We each did our own, covering it in m&ms, gummy things and some other pure sugar foods I'd not seen before. I spent just under an hour on mine.

Mine is on the left with the gingerbread man in the window and Bekki's is on the right.

Personally I think it was a perfect rest day activity  :)

Lazy or Clever?

Last night I got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep ... probably closer to 3. I got up at 7:30am to coach gymnastics for 3 hours. I've been feeling like my cold has pretty much passed but having not slept and working 2 jobs today I decided it might be wise to take the day off of working-out to avoid a possibility of getting another cold.

However, this is my second day off in a row and I instantly feel guilty about that because I am afraid that I would keep taking days off and lose all the conditioning that I've worked so hard for. It is much to easy to get lazy, easy to make excuses but I am hoping that I will be strong enough to get past all the excuse making. After all, I did work-out on Thursday even though I felt horrible.

Tomorrow I will probably be taking the day off also UNLESS I get off of work early tonight, get some descent sleep and get up early to work-out before my family arrives. If that can'y happen, I guess there is always the option of doing a late evening work-out seeing how 24 hour fitness is open 24 hours.

Okay, I feel better about my decision to take today off. I need to take care of my body so that it can take care of me. In fact, I've been working pretty hard all week, so two recovery days might prove to do me well.

Finally taking an unscheduled rest day.

Work was crazy last night ... something I wasnt quite prepared for. There were only three servers and the busser/food-runner was sent home due to a death in the family, so I was the hostess/busser/food-runner and took some orders for the servers who couldnt keep up. Did I mention that it was busier than a Friday night?!
I had taken ibuprofen and zantac before work and so I felt okay for a few hours, but the constant running around  finally caught up to me and I left over 5 hours later with a pounding headache.
I got home and ate a little something which made me feel somewhat better, but I decided to take a sleeping pill and go to bed. I slept about 12 hours and woke up with a sore throat and earache and was feeling like I was in a daze.

Having said all that, I decided that today would an unscheduled rest day. I don't like not working out but I dislike  feeling like this even more. I do still have to work tonight though, and even though it is a Friday, I am secretly hoping that it will be a quiet Friday.

Tomorrow I will definitely work out, but depending on how I feel, it may just be a little bit of cross-training.