Something that people don’t know about me is that I’m insanely good at doing nothing. It’s actually my natural state. I think it fully developed sometime during college when I felt like I was rushing from swim practice to classes, that any chance to sit and do nothing felt incredible. I’ve struggled with this over the years. In the past, it was not uncommon for me to skip half my workouts during a week home for Christmas or just completely go MIA after an Ironman. I’ve come to see the value in sticking to consistent training for obvious reasons and particularly for recovery.  But I still struggle especially mid-season.

That’s why when I told Hillary my friends were coming into town this weekend for our ten year college reunion, I felt her die a little inside. Even though over the years, Hillary has trained most of the laziness out of me, my achilles heel is still my college friends. I guess having a coach that can anticipate these things is what we’re all looking for and I was shocked to see that she gave me three choice days in a row that said “try to workout sometime between cocktails”. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. In hopes of proving to Hillary that I’m not a complete waste, I had a plan. I would take Friday off for the drive up to Pennsylvania, I would workout Saturday, drive home Sunday early and workout at home. The plan was going well through Saturday and I actually went out for a full hour run and enjoyed it!  But everything fell apart Sunday, with a few too many drinks, very little sleep, and an unplanned nap at the Harrisburg Airport…I was looking for my bed the second I got home. I guess I have to give myself an F for only hitting 50% of my workouts.

Obviously, this weekend was not ideal from a training perspective, but in a way I feel refreshed. It was three days of feeling like a normal person, which is just enough to realize I don’t want to be normal and to get back at it on Monday. I am definitely not endorsing going rogue and I don’t like the fact that sometimes I have a hard time training. But, I’m happy I have a few more memories with some great friends and I’m now ready to hit it hard for the next build to Ironman Canada.