Monday Blahs

Monday has turned into kind of a weird day for me.

Monday used to be my rest day; I got into a habit of lazy Mondays with no workouts. Back with Ironman, when I often had multiple workouts in a single day and extremely long weekends, that was a blessing. Prior to Ironman, I often picked Mondays as my off days. It was something that was started back with my first group. It’s been quite a custom for some time.

With my new Lydiard training schedule, there are no rest days. As committed as I am to this schedule, I find it very, very hard to break this habit. I did the same thing this Monday I did last Monday; I piddled around and missed the cool part of the day. Then, I intended to go to spin class as an alternative but didn’t double check the time and “accidentally” (Freud…or is it Jung?…says there are no accidents) missed the class. I do swim tonight, and I’m really looking forward to that, but I feel cranky and out of step for having missed running.

I guess I could get in the car and drive to the gym for a short run on the treadmill but it just doesn’t seem worth it.

Last night, I spent a lot of time watching Ironman Coeur d’Alene race coverage. Ah, that is wonderful stuff! The human drama in just the short amount of finish chute filmed is breath taking. I was lucky enough to catch several folks I know finishing. There are few things so exciting, and it’s even more exciting to channel what I remember from my time there. Of course, there’s been a flurry of people announcing their signups for CdA 2010 today. That was originally my plan, so I’m a bit sad to see all the great folks I’d love to train with commit to something without me. But the truth is, I can still participate in their journeys without going.

I’m going to plan on volunteering in 2010;  I’ll sign up for the 2011 race while I’m there. I think this will be good timing for me. The thought has actually presented itself that I am going to need to have something of my own to focus on to help deal with my youngest kid leaving home. It seemed it would get easier with experience, but the actuality is that it’s been harder the second time around. As much alone time as my boy and I get, I think his moving on is going to hit me even harder that #1 and #2. It will be a big life shift, and the distraction of some intense training with real goals will be a comfort. If I still have the Ironman bug after 2011, then I’ll go somewhere different…and I’ll have all the time in the world to get ready. That will be another animal altogether.

In the meantime, I could use another year of basic bike building. So all those friends who are going to be prepping for Coeur d’Alene, I want to ride with you!