This post is brought to you by the power of naps.  And kittens.  And beer.  Napping with kitties, then drinking beer.  

4 weeks ago I was recovering from really miserable F*n training.  I spent that week doing almost nothing.  Lots of rolling around on tennis balls to massage my achy muscles.  One run, two bike rides.  That’s it.

Then I had a blast hitting up the training the following week.  16 hours of training went over really well with my Fun Upgrade: Training With Friends.

Then there was another 16 hour week.

By Thursday of the third week I hit a wall of fatigue.  I could hardly keep my eyes open. I found myself sighing a lot.  Everything felt hard.  The plan for Friday was 6 to 7 hours out on the bike.  I think I would have cried if Kaitlin wasn’t planning on doing it with me.

Friday morning and I was staring blurry eyed at the weather forecast.  I looked at it on my phone.  I looked at it on my laptop.  I looked at the radar.  I squinted at the charts as if perhaps I could interpret the lines and numbers in any other way.  Rain.  All day.  Lots of it.

Perhaps if I had woke up with more gusto I would have defied the rain and gone riding anyway. But I called Kaitlin before I even sat up and said “Let’s not.  Not today.”

So I went for a run instead.  Then napped hard.  With kitties curled up with me.

It was good that it rained.  That nap was critical.

Saturday morning I biked, and ran, and then biked home.
Then napped again.  Didn’t even change out of my bike shorts, but man was I happy.  Just got cozy with one kitty in my arms and one at my feet.

Then biked again.  Then did the dishes.  Then Kaitlin and I biked a little more before I called it quits on the bike shorts.  I changed into a nice airy skirt and we biked to beer.

I think the last couple days of training for the big scary race would’ve had a lot of tears if it hadn’t been for the naps, the kitties, and beer with a friend.

Training is important, but it is made possible by rest.