Recharging and Relaxing…

Posted by: kzaitzruns | April 20, 2015

Recharging and Relaxing…

As a professional runner I often find myself constantly on the go. Often with two workouts a day, babysitting a couple of families, taking care of the house, making meals for my husband and myself on a daily basis, I can become grouchy and tired. This is my life, I love it and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. However, unlike other jobs where you get holidays off or two week vacations, running is different. Our breaks are based on our training cycles and for me, my largest breaks only come after a marathon. With my husband working in finance, we are lucky if our breaks line up. When they don’t my downtime is at home, and as anyone with a type A personality knows, that’s not REALLY a break. I find myself cleaning the house from top to bottom, doing yard work, anything that is “normal”. That “normalcy” leaves me exhausted and not revigorated like I should be when it’s time to start training again. I’m fortunate enough that my coach works “active recovery” breaks into my schedule (usually after a race at the end of a training cycle) and those breaks and what I do with them is pretty flexible. For instance, this time I took three days off of running completely and then starting running easy again. Or, I can take the whole week and cross train or do light running, it’s up to me really and what I feel I need. Only I can determine that.

This time I made sure to have a few days of R&R. While it was only three days followed by four days of easy running, it was enough to leave me excited, hungry and rested. I now feel ready to start my 10k training. It’s important for me to have a break where I get to relax. I don’t want to be on a tight schedule, I want to sleep in, I want to eat whatever I want and drink more than one glass of wine! If I exercise (like our wine tour on bikes), I don’t want it to feel like exercise! People often assume because I run I can eat whatever I want. While during marathon training, this is somewhat true, I see food as fuel and therefore try and make the healthiest choices. So while I consume a lot of calories and never restrict calories I make sure those calories are rich in protein, fruit, vegetables, and other healthy carbohydrates. I believe no one should live a life void of the foods and drinks they love but instead have them in moderation (or in my case, on my three day break)! I loved every minute of the good food and even better wine we consumed! I didn’t think about whether or not it was a healthy choice but rather was it something I would not eat ever or often while in training!

So if you are feeling burnt out from exercise, work, or life… sometimes you don’t need a long vacation to feel refreshed, sometimes all it takes is a few days away from home relaxing. For me that is wine country with my husband. It’s one of our favorite places to recharge from the stresses of life and it allows us to share in our passion of wine and beautiful scenery. We’d rather take six mini-vacations throughout the year then one or two bigger ones. It allows us to recharge more often, and in today’s busy world I believe this is so important for our well-being and for relationships with loved ones.

So go ahead and schedule yourself a 3 day vacation, I guarantee you won’t regret it! If you do, you weren’t stressed out enough or you don’t know how to plan a mini get-away!