Training is going pretty smoothly. I didn’t have any real modifications to my workouts this week and was able to get them all in. However, unlike my full Ironman training, this time around I am focusing a lot more time and energy into the self-care aspect of training. What does that mean and/or look like you might be asking? Well, it is a lot of stretching before and after working out, breathing exercises to calm within and help with sleep/stress, chiropractor adjustments every other week, and massages opposite weeks of the chiropractor.

Though I did do massages almost weekly while I was training for the full; I didn’t do any of the other things. Then I could get away with this as I was younger. I was also in great shape since I had been doing CrossFit for a while and was used to hitting it hard.

Training for the full for a year during my Ironman pretty much broke me. After completing the race, I had no desire to set foot into a gym, not even my own. I absolutely despised swimming laps and hadn’t done so until this month. We are looking at over 5 years of not stepping foot in a lap pool. Since the full, I’ve maybe ran a handful of times with the last time being at the STL GO back in April of 2022 so almost 2 years! Biking is the only thing that I have kept up doing and still to this day love doing it.

Ok, with all of that said, the ownest is on me 100%. I let the Ironman break me and then allowed it to be an excuse why I wasn’t motivated to get back at it. It also didn’t help that I have had some health issues that I’d been working through. Set-backs that shouldn’t have been long set-backs necessarily but here I am now, back at it.

So if you are reading this, no matter your age and fitness level, you should maintain a consistent lifestyle with self-care in whatever form that looks like to you. I do feel this does change and will ebb and flow depending on where you are in your life. I do want to point out that there are different versions of self-care which I equate to simply taking some time for you to do you. That could be a pedi/mani, massage, facial, or even a spa day. It could be just buying something for you with you in mind and not your significant other and/or child(ren).

This isn’t the most exciting post though I feel an important one. Many people do not incorporate this into their life and/or daily routine. I happened to be one of those people for all of my adult life until recently. It has made my recovery much quicker and my workouts more enjoyable as I don’t feel like complete dogshit from the last workout. So if you don’t do it currently, consider what that might look like to you and try to set time aside to do it. Yourself will thank you for it.

Now on to my restorative stretching in prep for tomorrow’s swim!