Glad That's Done!

"The only way to overcome is to hang in. Even I'm starting to believe that."- Dan O'Brien

Phew! It's been quite a week. Cycling, swimming, and running tests are now all complete - along with two other workouts in each discipline and three strength training sessions. We've been sleeping like rocks and eating like, well, like really hungry people!!!

In each of our tests / time trials we both reached points where we wanted to give up, where we had to decide whether we would chalk this one up as "just a workout," or whether we would dig in, accept the discomfort, and move through it. Luckily for us, test week also coincided with yin practice in each of our yoga classes. The yin style incorporates particularly long holds. As our coach says about yin in her latest blog post:

The mind goes through a very similar process in, say, a five-minute pigeon fold and a thirty-minute tempo interval. First you feel just fine. Then you start to feel the intensity grow. Then you wonder why you're doing this to yourself, and how you're going to make it through. Breath and form are key here; if you can keep them together, you'll make it to the end, pause to observe the effects, and feel really good about your experience. Physically, the yin style helps work in the deeper structures of the connective tissue that binds our athletic hips, causing all sorts of implications for our swim and pedal strokes and our strides.

So, this week, we chose to not give up. We chose breath and form. We chose to dig deeper.

Now, we're ready for a nap!