Some days remind me that my youth is well behind me. Today was a great example of that.
Yesterday was non-stop and when I am moving constantly, I usually feel pretty good. Getting up early to work out always means that mentally and physically I shut down around 8-9pm. But if I can just stay moving, I am good.
I woke up around 4:30a so that I could get up, get into the gym, and get all of my training knocked out. I wanted to get back home, shower, and have a decent breakfast before we ran our lifters through a mock style meet. I believe we have about 7 or 8 lifters competing in December at a local meet and a few of them have no platform experience. This was a chance for them to get the feeling for warming up and taking 3 attempts with people watching. I had a make-shift tripod setup where I grabbed some video of everyone and also brought my Nikon in so that I could take some photos. Oh, I also was a loader, which I would find out later isn’t the best thing for your back. After the mock meet, I ran home so that I could try and relax. I got to sneak in about a 20 minute nap before we were up and moving again, this time headed to church to volunteer. Our church was partnering with another organization and the goal was to pack 1,000,000 meals for refugees in Africa. Our family participated and in our hour of time there, we packaged 10 boxes, or the equivalent of 2,160 meals. A very rewarding and humbling experience for all of us. That was followed by church, then dinner with the family for my wife’s birthday at a local spot. By the time I found myself back home, I just had nothing left in the tank.
When my alarms (notice there was more than one) went off this morning, I guess I was so tired that I rolled over and turned both off. I finally woke up about an hour later. My entire body felt like I had been involved in a train wreck. Everything was so tight and sore from the entire day before. Part of me thought it would be better to just lay back down. After all, my wife was going to pick up our girls (Spent the night with the grand-parents). I could run grab the food from Kroger which wouldn’t take long because we used Click List, come home to unpack, and then lay back down. But the more I got moving, the better my entire body felt. I used to wake up with this feeling and write the entire day off. But lately, I feel much more in tune with how I feel and when I need to back off or when getting up an getting moving will actually make me feel better. I know for a fact that if I had stayed at home, I would have been grouchy as hell.
Then one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was at the gym knocking out some bottom up front squats. I got my workout in early so that I could stay and help coach the lifting class. Normally the other coach handles the weekend classes, but we have had such high attendance lately, having another coach is really helpful. That and I want the experience. Plus I just love the stuff.
Tomorrow I am considering getting up and bypassing my typical rest day and sneaking some light cardio in. Maybe running that same rowing program I tried the other day, or hitting some easy intervals. Just to get my heart rate up, break a sweat, but nothing involving a barbell. Also a good time to get in some extra mobility, because I can’t seem to do anything super extra at home these days.