Leading By Example

Practice what you preach, lead by example, there are two thousand ways to say it. But what I did over the weekend, or rather, what I didn't do.... only needs one word.

Stupid.

Saturday I ran the Hearnish 10K (which was 6.5 according to my Garmin, and for the record, 4 miles too short!). The hilliest 10K+ that I have ever run. Then I worked 13 hours on my feet, well into the wee hours of the morning. Follow with a 10 mile run and a sweet spot ride, then 8 more hours on the good old feet.

Monday morning I awoke looking for the wheel marks of the truck that had apparently run me over.

The good news is that I hurt in all the right places. General pain, general soreness, nothing in the AT or that suggests a muscle strain. Whew.

The bad news is that all of this could easily have been prevented. And I know better.

I simply neglected to recover myself.

Typically after hard efforts, days and races I follow the very basic laws of recovery. I take an ice bath, I practice yoga, I use my stick, I do a 30 minute inversion.

Clearly I did none of this. It disappointed no one else but me. This was all preventable. Now things are a little bit off kilter. Coach moved my first cruise interval run from Tues to Thurs. I am at easy efforts today and even that seems like a challenge.

But it is no one's fault but my own. I know better than anybody that recovering oneself if just as important as the workout. No one notices it more than the 30+ athletes that I currently coach.

They look to me to lead by example and this weekend I did not do it. For no good reason either. So I am coming clean. Today's workouts needn't be moved around had I followed my own rules.

My body doesn't care that in 2007 I did 2 Ironmans. That doesn't matter this morning. The woman in the mirror tells me to get over myself as she sings "Glory Days."..... again.

Tuesday is recover myself day. A bike, a swim, and a recovery run. The stick, an inversion, and a big cup of hot HTFU. I was really looking forward to my first official Cruise Interval Run this morning. By my own fault I am looking at Thursday instead.

Should I be hard on myself? Yes. Because I know better. If I am expecting my athletes to do the same as I do, I'd better be doing it myself.

Lesson learned, lesson counted.

Three cheers for recovery day!