Recovery Mode

Recovery week.

So far I’ve eaten the food.  ALL THE FOOD!

I’m taking a week off from the whole eating healthy and exercising routine.  Everything is fair game.  Burgers, Pizza, Reese’s, Cookies, Ice Cream.  Is it bad for you?  Fair game.

Let’s be fair…I won’t go completely off the deep end.  I’m like the kid in the pool who’s on that weird slope between the shallow and deep parts.  I’m still going to eat my normal healthy stuff for breakfast and lunch.  But dinner and dessert is going to be guilt free.

I need this.  After a big event I must hit refresh: physically AND mentallly.

Physically my body needs rest.  I’m trying to promote recovery through gentle activity like hiking, yoga, slackline, and very light weight lifting.  Just no running (more on this soon).  Active Recovery.

Active recovery is the best.  It will heal your body faster than just plopping on the couch like a slob.  (Even though you may want to after an ultra)

Mentally, my mind just needs to take a step out of training mode, a mode I’ve been in since the end of December.  I’m not fretting over nutrition (at least not to the extent I do during training) and I’m spending less time exercising and more time on one of the many other hobbies I would love to learn.

Stepping out of routine can be a good thing.  Especially after establishing the discipline it takes to easily jump back in.

Recovery mode is hard for someone who is constantly in athlete mode but YOU HAVE TO DO THIS for the health of your body and to sustain your career (aka avoiding over-training syndrome- read this fabulous article from outdoor magazine)

So the next few weeks are going to be different and therefore difficult but if I can run long distances in the mountains, I can surely recover in a smart way!

Thanks for reading!  Happy Tuesday!

P.S.- My recap from Grayson Highlands should be up sometime this week.  Check back!