As I wrote in one of my very first posts here at Fitspeek.com, as much as I enjoy training intently and racing to win during the “on-season” I equally relish the pure joy of just being active and doing cool stuff with cool people in the “dark-season.”
I had a chance to do that last week in my basement, as I led a small group of athletes from the Abbotsford Triathlon Club (www.abbytriclub.com) in a “softly-structured” bike workout. The workout itself was a bit of a no-brainer, with very few tempo fluctuations, so we could focus on the important stuff, which was chatting! A rainy afternoon spinning on a trainer with friends so we could all burn enough calories for the Saturday night festivities was the order of the day – and it was mission accomplished!
This weekend, intensity and purpose took another back seat to joy, wonderment, and adventure. My wife and I found ourselves at the foot of the Newport Bridge, jacked up on caffeine and perilously close to the Rogue World Headquarters.
Delayed gratification won out and it was only after 90 minutes of non-structured walk/run/climb/scramble/repeat, that we rewarded ourselves with some lovely recovery refreshments. This sort of workout would not have happened during the “serious-training” phase in the months of April-September where specific heart rate and distance targets are to be met for peak race performance.
In the end, it was clearly an surplus abundance of calories for the amount of exercise we did but a big W in the column of life and relationship experiences. Share they joy!
