Day 283: Mother's Day Bliss

I seem to have lost the concept of a rest day. I had no rest days last week, since I decided to bike on Saturday (which was meant to be my off day). And this week, my rest day was Thursday, when I went to a pretty intense vinyasa yoga class. I thought maybe today would be an off day, after my usual swim on Friday, and a 20km bike ride yesterday, followed by a 3km run (with my friend T, as we're both training for the duathlon in two weeks). (Side note: I sense that's going to be mildly torturous, and will push me to my limits once again).

Today I got to sleep in. The best gift for this mother. When I got up, way later than usual and feeling completely rested and ready to get up, my eldest daughter (age 8) made me an egg to order: sunny-side-up was what I chose. Then I opened Mother's Day gifts, and my husband took the kids grocery shopping while I read the newspaper and played piano. By the time they'd returned I was feeling pretty restless. Too much leisure! Too much ease! So I offered to take my eldest daughter to her soccer practice, and try out going for a run at the same time. It turned out to be perfect. The soccer fields are surrounded by beautiful trails, and I ran for an hour and twenty minutes, not fast, just steady and happy, and kind of overjoyed to be able to run and run and run without feeling anything but happy. It made me feel like this is what my body is meant for, and just a great overwhelming gratitude to be able to use it and live in it in this way. I ended with some sprints followed by a short recovery, just to test it out. I felt a little silly sprinting, but hey, it's a sports field and most are there to exert themselves. It's just that most of the people running around are kids, not parents.

So that's my week, and it's been great. I checked my distance when I got home, and it was about 13km. Not that far, really, but far enough.

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Here's my week: four runs, two bike rides, two swims, and two yoga classes. (total km running: 28.5km; total km cycling: 40km).

Next week's plan: three runs, one/two bike rides, three swims, and two yoga classes.