Reset

First off, I know all of our hearts are in Moore, Oklahoma and with all those affected by the tornadoes. I can't even imagine. Natural disasters are terrifying to me as someone who likes to be able to have control over things in life. 

As usual, flowers brought to you by Trader Joe's

After a few weeks of crazy unusual summery weather, we're back to cold and wet here in Eugene. I've already busted out the puffy jacket a few times this week.

Now about that reset...
I'm telling you this because they say announcing things publicly makes us more accountable. Mentally, I've been planning for this, but sometimes doing as I say isn't allllways a reality.

Anyway, my goal for these last two weeks of May is to treat them as reset weeks. Why the reset?

I'm planning to start base building for the Chicago Marathon on June 1st. In order to be ready for this round of marathon training, I want to be mentally and physically fresh and excited for the journey.

I'm going to be exercising for my sanity, and to complete Best Body Bootcamp, but I'm not going to be worried about my mileage, calories burned, feeling sore, etc. What I'm going to focus on is easy. What does this mean?

Easy, short runs. Easy lifting (as part of BBB workouts). No crazy circuit sweat blasting craziness that I love. oops. YOGA. Chilling the heck out. And likely, lots of walking or casual bike riding for my sanity.

Speaking of sanity, two of my coworkers recently started the Insanity workouts and wanted to know what I thought of them, so I had to see what all the fuss was about. Last night I came home and did the fit test (8 intense workouts, each for 1 min straight w/ 1 min rest, as many reps as possible) and the plyometric cardio workout (warm up + cardio circuits + stretch).

I'll try the other workouts before I do a full review, hopefully in a few weeks, but suffice it to say, I was dripping sweat and my arms felt like jello afterward. 

Mind over body
After that bout of Insanity, I suppose I should treat this sort of like taper weeks where I find things to occupy my time and brain. Some of my favorite distractions during taper weeks include reading all the magazines I've neglected, meeting up with a friend, trying a new recipe, doing an at home pedicure, etc.

Luckily, I'm already pretty busy with work and wedding planning, but it's always amazing how choosing a different mindset ("yay, taper time" vs. "here we go, another tough training week") changes how I measure success. So often, I have a mileage goal or workout plan in mind that I want to achieve, but during a rest week, success = the days I'm laying low and sweating less.


What are your favorite taper/easy week distractions? Has anyone else tried Insanity?