Hitting the Wall...

"Rest when you're weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.”

- Ralph Marston

This week I'm taking a Recovery Week. It's been a while since I've trained this consistently for a length of time with such volume and intensity. I've been highly motivated from the start of this new program, and it's only been in the last week or so that I've noticed that my mental game has started to drop. For me, that's a warning sign.

I've been pushing myself to go to the gym, but knowing that once I arrived, I'd be fine and put in, like I always do. But last week the cracks were starting to show, and my body has been giving me some curry in the last couple of weeks, with a build up of tension in the upper body, plus I've had a few more adjustments because of headaches, which I rarely get.

Anyway...so this week as I said, I've taken as a recovery week, as the prescription from my coach was just to keep moving and just do group fitness classes. A rest from weights and anything too high intensity. Sounded good.

Come Monday, I wasn't in a good place mentally. Actually, I was really struggling. And with all the running around getting Philomena all ready for prep, it was going to be a full week and hasn't helped. Anyway...Monday I didn't train. I was physically and mentally exhausted, and I hadn't trained since Friday...more warning signs.

Tuesday I ended up doing 20mins of high intensity intervals on the cross trainer before a Body Balance class. Nothing too strenuous (or so I thought), but afterwards I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. When I got home I sat on the recliner still in my gym gear, and didn't move for one hour. I struggled to get out the chair, and didn't really want to, but things had to be done (like get a shower). The exhaustion was just so overwhelming, and I felt it in every part of my body. That's when I knew I'd hit the wall.

My body is so full of tension right now, and everything I do is a real effort. I'll have spurts of energy (enough to do the basic stuff and clean the house) and then just crash. I've been through this before. I know when my body needs to rest. So I'm resting.

I had a massage today. Instead of being relaxing, it was painful, because I had so many sore points all over my body. But I needed something before a chiropractic adjustment. My massage therapist was awesome though! They now have one at our gym, and she really knows her stuff. So I've booked for another massage session on Friday afternoon. By then, my adjustment would have settled things, and I'm hoping for a more relaxing outcome to the massage.

So in light of my current exhaustion, I'm avoiding any further cardio or weights for the remainder of the week (note to Liz), and will just be doing Pilates and similar types of group classes, as well as activation, stretching and relaxation work, and maybe some gentle walking. I don't want to make too much of a dent with my weight goal, so I think one week should be sufficient before I'm both physically and mentally ready to put in where I left off. What I do know is that unless I have complete rest, it will be detrimental to my progress.

That's about it for me really. I have nothing profound to say. I'm just very tired at the moment and resting as much as I can, which isn't always easy with a 4 year old in tow. However, tomorrow is Philomena's last day of daycare before starting school on Monday, so I will get a rest then, and a much needed haircut. Friday, Philomena is having a sleep over, so I will have lots of time to rest and recuperate in amongst a couple more appointments, of which one is my physio. And in-between I plan to...you guessed it.. rest.

So nothing exciting from me this week to report. Just need to put my feet up and take a break.