When the going gets tough.

When the going gets tough, the tough remain calm. That's how the saying should go.

So the beginning of last week didn't start out so well. I'm still not sure exactly what was down, but I seemed to have lost sight of where I was and what I was doing with myself. I took the MCAT, I completed the final weekend of a training cycle, and then I zombied out. It almost took an entire week to regroup, but......... [drum roll please] .......... I'm back! And there seemed to have been a reoccurring theme I was to acknowledge as I was suffering from a lack of motivation, and that theme was the word "relax".

I had just completed the MCAT, good grief, I was mentally drained. Why the need to wake up the next morning and feel it necessary to move forward with life at full speed?

It was a rest week within my training cycle. Rest weeks follow multiple weeks of working really hard and they're the opportunity to gain strength by fully recovering. So that means "taking it easy", not psyching myself out that perhaps I didn't train hard enough to deserve a week of recovery. Psyching myself out does not lend itself to feeling rested.

Then at my master's swim at the Y last week (Thursday), I swim a few laps thinking I'm "warming-up" and before the instructor details what she wants me to work on, she says "You need to learn how to NOT jump in the pool and start swimming a million miles a minute right away." And she wasn't smiling, she was straight serious. Wow! If that wasn't "constructive criticism"... I thought I was just warming-up! Essentially my whole swim session was focused on learning to swim relaxed. I'll have plenty of time to rev up the engine during the bike and run legs and evidently you can swim just as fast relaxed as you can with a super high stroke rate...  who knew?

Friday I was making a cake to take up to the mountain (ski patrol duty shift dinner assignment) and while thinking a simple frosting will do just fine... I find out my genetics class was canceled that afternoon... hello extra two hours of time. So, I decided to go the extra mile decorating this cake. I spent two hours decorating the top of this cake; it was awesome. And super relaxing. Cake decorating- it could be another hobby someday.

I enjoyed a very slow Saturday and Sunday, taking it easy, getting done what needed to be done, and making it a fun weekend. When it was time to think about beginning another training cycle, three weeks of working really hard, I sat down and paced my way through it. My workouts are only getting more intense: longer, harder, crucial to getting strong. But as I'm trying to wrap my head around how I'm going to make it happen, in black and white it's written: Stay in the moment; don't focus too far ahead.

When the going gets tough, the tough remain calm. The plan was established back in October, all I gotta do is continue to stay on track, living in the moment and making the most of each day... Staying true to myself and working hard... Life is good.