resting is hard

 I feel a little uneasy about how little training I'm doing in the lead up to the race but I also know logically that's normal and good. I know I've pushed myself really hard since September and that my body needs some extended recovery. 

Most months I've followed the pattern of taking a rest week every 4th week. I'll run about 60% of my normal weekly mileage. I've noticed that some people take the approach of keeping their mileage high for 10 or 12 weeks and then taking a more intensive rest. Maybe I'll experiment with this at some point. I like dividing my training into 3 week blocks and I think the more frequent rest weeks allow me to do a long 6 month push like I did from September to March. 

I can tell that the usual feelings of fatigue are being replaced with a kind of anxious energy and not quite knowing what to do with myself. I can also feel myself getting excited about training again after I get back from Spring Break. That's a good thing. 

There's a climbing youtube channel I really like called the Wide Boyz and a while back they had a documentary made where these two guys, the wide boyz, did this crazy long crack climb that had never been done before. The film was uploaded by the creator to youtube last week and it's free to watch. It follows their training and documents their experience doing the climb. Both of the guys were already longtime climbers but they trained specifically for this one climb in a cellar for two years. 

It got me thinking about wanting to train towards the 10 miler year round. Initially my spring plan was to drop my focus down to the mile and try to get fast for the summer. I think I'll still do those races because they're fun but I really like the idea of mastering 5:30 mile pace all year. The other focus that will complement this goal very well is running hard at the long run spots around town. If you can run 5:30 pace for 7 to 8 miles you can do very well on the long run segments. It's a pretty minor shift in terms of what the training will actually be but it was nice to really cement in my mind what I wanted to do.

The last "true" off week I had was back in the end of July when I had covid and it's debatable how much of a rest that actually was so for the next three weeks I'm really making it my job to rest up and absorb all of the fitness I worked hard for.

Also, I don't plan on taking a week completely off at any point. I've tried this in the past and it's had mixed results. I'd prefer to just bring my mileage way down, to 3 to 5 miles a day for longer than a week rather than not run at all.