What I am thinking about this morning?

It’s going to be a better day than yesterday!

Everything seemed to catch up with me in a single day. I spent most of the day yesterday asleep in my recliner or on the bed. I don’t really think that I was sick, more like I was exhausted mentally/physically, and needed a day to simply not do anything more than recuperate. That shut-down the brain and body for a quick re-set.

So, that is what I did — nothing, but sleep.

I slept and I slept and I slept. Mary was worried because I don’t get sick frequently and definitely don’t spend most of the day sleeping.

However, we all have been on screech for a few years now. From the nasty 2020 election, evolving political divisions, pandemic, wars, social media overload, constant propaganda from all directions, along with Mother Nature venting her displeasure on humanity. Fatigue is going to catch up to all of us at some point.

Then add in my personal stressors that are a part of living a decent life during these “interesting” times, while attempting to be flexible to the changes happening around us on the fly. The mind and body finally decided that it needed a day to do nothing.

For me, the biggest surprise, even though I slept most of the day. Was that, I was still able to sleep nicely last night and woke up to the alarm feeling as though it would have been nice to have slept in for a while longer.

This morning I am feeling fine, a little residual fatigue, but nothing like the massive stuff I felt yesterday and a clear head. Well, as clear I will have at this time.

Speaking of moving forward

Due to yesterday’s recuperation day, I am changing my run training this week to a cut-back week. It is probably needed and likely to be more productive than sticking to an artificial schedule or attempting to get a certain number of miles in this week. Especially, since there is no real goal race or point to my training at this point — other than to work on weak areas in my running.

I can start that new training plan when the body and mind are ready. I am not super great at listening to the old body and keep pushing it along a bit more than I should most of the time. So, some time to simply enjoy running, without having to meet a daily workout goal, isn’t a bad idea at all.

What Did I do?

After yesterday’s recuperation day, I wasn’t sure how the body would respond to running this morning. So, I decided to do laps in front of the house, wear the 361 Flames to see how they did again and more to just get out to move the body.

Fall is definitely in the air, the thunderstorm that went through yesterday cleared the air, brought in dryer weather and this morning for Bennie’s first walk were in the low ’50s with bright crisp sunshine. The crispness was still in the air and there was a nice breeze, so the weather is great for running.

I started out slowly, still loved how the Flames felt underfoot, and worked up to something a little more than comfortable, but nothing all that hard either. When I looked at the mile splits after finishing, it was a nice progression run. However, the graph giving me my pace information, is still all over the place and will be until I get better at locking in my paces again.

Thankfully, I felt strong during the workout and focused more on running efficiently than anything else. I even picked up the pace a little on the last lap, which felt nice.

Yesterday’s sleep-fest was a nice re-set that has been needed for a while, I have a feeling, and I didn’t have that overwhelming feeling of fatigue that shut me down yesterday.

Even so, I purposely ran closer to home and shorter than I would normally do, it is better to be safe, than sorry. It appears that I am not completely immune to some semblance of common sense. 🙂

I also purchased Bradley Stulberg’s new book The Practice Groundedness this morning. It ties into many of the thoughts and how I am feeling, so I am hoping that it will provide me with a few strategies and ideas to help deal with some of the feelings that are and have been haunting me for a while.

I am half-way through chapter 2 and taking more than a few notes as I go. It is making me stop and think more than most books I have read this year.