Find YOUR own rhythm!

I was in a funk and honestly am scared to declare that I might be out of it, but I feel the fire starting to burn again! How did this happen? A series of things!

1. I decided to say F-YOU to the early morning work out! I AM NOT a morning person!
2. I said F-YOU to A LOT of coffee.
3. I spent a week w/ my family and went easy on myself for not swimming or hitting all my workouts.
4. I RAN HARD and FAST w/ no knee pain (for a whopping 15 mins).
5. I went on a NICE LONG bike ride.
6. I made myself swim (after my week of reprieve) and it was good.

I think the number one thing I did was to respect my own rhythm. As endurance athletes it's almost required to get up at an ungodly hour to get your workout it. It's as much of a bragging right as the distance you s/b/r. "Oh yea well I got up at 3:30 am and dropped a century ride before most sane people are out of bed on a Sunday. Who's the badass now?" You know you've heard it ... and been a little jealous of their discipline. Well I hate to get up early to do pretty much anything... so I decided I'm done doing that (at least for now.. for the summer.. while I don't have to.) Not to say I NEVER will just to say it's not going to be my regular practice. I want to enjoy this process... getting up before 6am to workout is not really that enjoyable for me. A better idea for me is to get up early before the family (I don't mind doing it) to get other stuff done... like blogging, cleaning.. whatever. Then doing my workouts later around the 9am hour. I can take the kids to the gym with me ... they love it. Great friend time for them. So what's best for YOUR rhythm? Is there a way that you can honor YOUR rhythm and still maintain balance and normalcy for your family!?

It's no secret that I love coffee. I don't love caffeine, but I do love me some coffee. It's my number one comfort food.. followed closely by dark chocolate. I'm fine so long as I keep the consumption under control, but in May when life exploded I got out of control and was having a hard time getting back under control. I was so tired and agitated all the time. So I just ripped the band-aid off. Added the decaf to our mix of beans and slowly backed it off to having just some caffeinated beans. And now if I feel I MUST have a coffee in the afternoon it's decaf. Life is getting better already. (for everyone.) There is still room for progress...

My Aunt and cousins came to visit for a week and it was so nice! I got to spend time with people... and we've talked about how lonely I've been. We just kicked it and did normal stuff. We went to NYC one day of the week, but he rest of the time we just hung around. They taught me that it's really okay - and quite beneficial - to just chill sometimes. You don't ALWAYS have to be going going going. I was able to relax and had even more help with the kiddos. They were IN LOVE w/ their cousin Steph! I also came home to find Steph and Amanda (both in their 20s.. wait.. Amanda might be in her 30s now?) out playing catch! WHO does that? ha We also spent time in the yard as a family trying to do cartwheels. (Damn why did no one get their camera.. there was some good footage there.) It was so fun! We rarely go just hang out in the yard. Okay, that's not fair. I don't go out in the yard w/ the kids much. Tom does. Must change that.... FOCUS Laura.

In the midst of this 'chilling time' I went up and did my coaching thing with the NMSC tri club. We did an hour ride and 15 min run. That 15 mins was the best 15 mins I've had in the 'triathlon' world for a LONG time. I loved EVERY SECOND of it. I decided to just open it up and see how it went. My legs still have some speed! YEAH! And 15 mins of pushing as hard as you can provides that runner's high I have been missing so much. (hmm so you mean to tell me I don't need to be out there for hours to get that feeling? Hmmm) Well, the feeling for the hours lasts longer than the feeling after 15 mins. Anyway my point being that it stoked the fire and I can feel some flames again. Let's hope the knee can continue to feel good if I ease into it. Track workout today to test it out!


The main reason for the family coming up was to ride the Bike NY Hudson Valley Ride. Getting a solid bike in really helped me to see that all is not lost on my fitness and once again reminded me that I DO in fact LOVE this stuff.

And then as a nice capper I had a great swim on Tuesday. Again with the rhythm. I was faced with an opportunity to swim when I hadn't expected it and just jumped on it.. because well I NEED to be swimming. I got in by myself.. no lane mate to kick my ass up and down the lane. No friend to try to keep up with. Just me and MY pace. While I get the benefit of swimming (and biking and running) with others because it pushes you to be better I also feel that - for me - I am better served - right now - to do my own thing at MY pace with no pressure. At the state I'm in with swimming (that kind of I can swim, but not real fast gray area) I need to just get the yards done and not worry so much about my speed. It's just who I am and where I'm at right now and I (NEED to be) am good with that. I was thinking about the progression of my running. In the early days I just focused on getting the miles done to prepare my for the event.. it was years before I worked on speed. My body/mind seems to want to follow that same progression with swimming. I really enjoyed swimming my pace and focusing on 'letting go' and 'feeling the water'...... so I'm going to roll with it!

What do you do to get yourself out of your funk... I know we all fall into it at times! Now when I fall in a funk again I need to refer back to this game plan!