"It's Not Easy But It's Worth It!"

The title of this post is what some random old guy walking his dogs said to me as I ran by him on the trail.  I don't think I'd ever seen him before, so it was truly random encouragement but his words certainly rang true. 

I've just finished my first three weeks of training and am at the beginning of the greatly anticipated rest week.  I have to say, for the first two weeks or so, it almost felt... easy.  I suppose part of that is that it was relatively easy, since it's base and all Z1 stuff, which is my favorite, and the volume wasn't particularly high.  So I suppose it was bound to feel easy, but it was nice to feel good for the majority of the workouts.  I do admit that sometime in the middle of week three, when my alarm started waking me up early in the morning out of a sound sleep, that some of the novelty had worn off.  But overall, it felt really good to get back out there with a plan and a schedule and an upcoming race to look forward to. 

Weather has also been cooperating mostly.  I've lucked out in that I've done all of my bike rides outside so far.  It should be noted that I'm willing to ride in colder temperatures than most people.  As long as what I bring to drink with me won't freeze solid and the roads are dry, I'm probably going to hit the road.  I've had some chilly rides but really, as long as I'm dressed well, I'm mostly fine. 

It's amazing how quickly this makes me feel more like myself.  It's not that I hadn't been doing anything before, but I was doing things without any plan or purpose, and waiting and doing things later in the day.  I'm the kind of person who really needs to just get up first thing in the morning and get up and get the training done and then move on with the rest of my day.  It just makes me feel better in general.  And for the first time in a long time I'm really excited about the upcoming season.  I feel like I got the rest I needed and the mental break from constantly having an Ironman to do, and now I'm ready to get back at it and do what needs to be done with fresh legs and without feeling mentally worn down.  Granted, we still have 19 weeks to go and a lot can happen in that time, but so far, so good!