Picture me moon-walking, ala Michael Jackson, because that’s what I’m doing: walking back (almost) everything that I said yesterday.
I took today off from Orange Theory.
I woke up just after 3 o’clock this morning and felt like a train had hit me. I was achy and uncomfortable and knew that it was because of the 2000m row benchmark yesterday, but it didn’t feel like normal after-workout soreness.
And so remembering that something is the better part of valor (I’m far too lazy to google the actual cliché), I cancelled.
Could I have worked out this afternoon? Sure. I still have those old-timey athlete feelings about “no pain, no gain” stuff and would have pushed through. But I considered this: what’s the long term goal here? Is it to accumulate five Orange Theory workouts in one week? Or is it to start up a habit that will stick with me for the coming months and years?
I’ll give you three guesses as to the right answer, and the first two don’t count.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s good for me to set goals and great for me to work to make them reality. But I can never lose sight of what I’m really trying to accomplish. Let’s face it – I’m no spring chicken (more of a fall chicken, I assume?) and I can’t run my body the way I used to. A workout today might mean no workouts for another week. It’s too easy to make a mistake, pull a muscle, get sick or otherwise do more harm than the good that the workout might have done.
Balance. Common sense. Commitment to a plan. Adjusting the plan to allow for real life.
It’s all part of this game that I’m playing. And hoping to win.