REST

After a pretty grumpy, tired early part of last week, I figured it was probably time to take a little bit of a rest break. I was exhausted all day on Thursday. So instead of going to my triathlon class, I went home after work and took a bath, read my book, made dinner, and went to bed early. Even after that little break I felt a lot better on Friday. I awakened a little before my alarm, and was actaully ready to get up (as opposed to all the other days that week when I was having such a hard time getting out of bed). I hopped into my workout clothes and made it to the gym in time to run a mile before my Power Pump class. After lifting weights for an hour, I ran by the office to grab my gear, then headed out to meet up with two foresters for a field tour on the Coal Creek State Forest, which is located up the North Fork of the Flathead River, right across from Polebridge and Glacier Park. It was a gorgeous day-- sunny, 50 degrees. We saw about 40 elk, a golden eagle, a bunch of moose sign, and fresh big grizzly tracks. Way cool. The combination of sleep and sun and wild critters helped my mood and energy levels immensely!

The nice weather continued all weekend, as did the good mood. I continued to take it a little easy on Saturday, spending most of the day hanging out with Jim and our neighbor Kenny who turned 4 years old on Saturday. He rode around with us to doctor calves, feed the cows, and fuel up the tractors. Then while Jim went and worked on a tractor-repair project, Kenny and I caught my horse Monster and went for a ride. It was fun to spend time with a little one! I only had one YIKES moment, when Jim and Kenny and I all walked in to the gas station together to get a snack. It was like de-ja-vu in reverse.

Sunday morning Craig and Amy came out and we did a 16.5 mile bike ride that looped around Frenchtown. It was again warm and sunny, which was terrific. We enjoyed lunch on our back porch after the ride, and then I had them drop me off in one of the hay fields where Jim was doing some prescribed burning. I helped burn the weeds and extra grass out of ditches until around 6pm. We got done, went home and cooked a couple of burgers on the grill and ate them on the back porch. It was sooooo nice to be warm and to get some sun on my pasty skin.

Now I'm all rested up, I've had a taste of sun (though it's supposed to get cooler and rainy for the majority of the week to come), and I'm ready to hit some hard workouts again. The rest did me good. To read more about rest-- the necessity, the benefits, how to incorporate it into your training-- check out these articles:

Rest Easy

The 3 R’s of Running: Recovery, Rest, Recharge

Rest and easy days: more important than you think