Refocusing

On the beach, post race...

It's been a week since the Miami mudder, and I've been taking it a little easy.  I have to say, aside from the general soreness, I came out of the event without any lasting injuries.  No stitches, no sprains, no breaks, no tears.  The soreness faded pretty much by Tuesday, and I've felt really good so far this week.  In fact, the most painful thing about the whole event was the sunburn that I got on my face. 

At this point after the South Carolina mudder, I was dealing with turf toe and a sore wrist.  I had read enough about turf toe that said it was best treated with rest, so I decided I was going to take as much time off of working out as was necessary to fully heal.  Of course, this ended up being unworkable because I found myself a month later starting to feel sluggish and not really fully mended.  Add in the fact that I was coming up fast on my deadline to start Insanity, and it became a no brainer to try and work through the pain.  Taping the toe up helped, and I was able to do everything I needed to do. 

This time, I had decided to take a week off after the event to fully recover (even if I didn't feel like I needed it), and then start again regardless of what aches and pains were still there.  Luckily, the pains didn't materialize, and I ended up with a week of feeling really good.  But, now it's time to REFOCUS. 

I can say from my experience with the SC mudder, that taking time off after an event is a MAMMOTH hurdle, and one that must be overcome.  I not only started to feel sluggish, but I also started to feel like it was okay to take time off.  I had earned it, hadn't I?  I could afford to wait one more day to start?  Insanity wasn't going anywhere, and I had plenty of time until the next mudder... Excuse after excuse came out of my mouth, and I found it easier and easier to justify not putting the effort in.  When I did start back, it was tough, and the hill was harder to climb than it needed to be.

I guess I could be trite and say something cliche about procrastination, but I think that most of those messages have already been said in every other self-help book that's ever been published.  I would rather focus on the fact that I was able to jump back in after a long delay and I'll be able to jump back into the flow after a shorter delay.  I control that part of my life, and I can either do it or not.  I can take the time off, or I can jump back in.  I can justify procrastinating, or I can suck it up and work my way ahead.  I'm the person who gets to make that decision, and - aside from Danny and Brian - there's nobody who would think too poorly of me for not working out as hard as I possibly can.  Except me, that is...