Day Off

It's early, and I've already been up for quite a while. Crawled out of bed at 5 am today, well actually I just sat up and started eating cold, plain whole wheat spaghetti I had left next to my bed to replace the glycogen emptied out of my liver while I slept. Not the most appetizing breakfast. I have been preparing for today's workout for a few days now, doing 1k pick ups in my easy runs to get the legs moving, eating massive amounts of quality carbs, accompanied by quality proteins and fats yesterday, keeping hydrated and topping up the tank this morning at the crack of dawn. Good practice but when I looked out the window and see that the wind is a good 25km/hr and I have about 50 laps of alternating 3:06 and 3:17 kilometers, I am more than a little deflated. This is where having a group to train with is really nice. Anyhow, I'm not feeling up to the task today and haven't for a few days so I am taking a day off, completely, aside from the massage this evening. Looking back at my log, it turns out I haven't taken a full day off training in 63 days, not since I was still in Toronto and took a day off because I didn't feel like fighting the snow with the knowledge I would be running in balmy westcoast weather in a matter of days. What on earth am I going to do with myself? I suspect my day will consist of a lot of walking, maybe go to the grocery store for the 4th consecutive day. I have a new found interest or hobby if you will, a good one. The other day I stopped into chapters and picked up Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness book and have improved my diet considerably. Even he says you should not make broad sweeping changes to your diet because it takes your body time to adjust but over the last week I have been eating way more quality foods and have felt the difference, in energy levels in particular right away. It is kind of sad that I have left it until this point in my life and career to really put any amount of effort into my diet but it is just one of many things I have learned or come to realize in the last year that I will need to do to reach another level in my training and competitions. I am actually beginning to enjoy going to the store and finding new foods I have not eaten before, and I never thought I'd say it but I am actually enjoying preparing them as well, something about the anticipation of how they are going to make me feel once they are absorbed into my body(I still don't get excited about taste, maybe that will come in time.) Well my morning coffee is wearing off here so I'm heading back to bed, oh glorious day off!