Waiting, In The Cold

Today was the latest day in the year I have ever done intervals in my entire carrier and it didn't feel so great. It was also the first weekend since October 3rd that I haven't raced and that felt spectacular!
It's been tough to get motivated for sure though. I thought it would be easy, but that last 5 days off went really fast and all of sudden I had to talk myself into getting back on the bike and it hasn't been easy at all. I've been extremely tired since Nationals which hasn't helped and this whole weekend I was completely wiped which is probably another reason the motivation was low.
I finally made it out Saturday morning for the first time since Nationals, but got super cold during the group ride and had to flip it, funny thing was it wasn't actually that cold out, but for some reason I was absolutely freezing. Sunday I was out for 3 hours on the mountain bike and made it out to Greenbush for some trail riding which was a good change of pace, although I was so tired before I left I was extremely close to napping instead of riding. Monday I made out for a run in the morning which actually felt pretty good and today I was doing 20 minute repeats to try and get my legs opened back up and feeling fast again. It worked OK and the effort kept me warm since it was in the 2os. Hopefully the motivation is coming back and I'm rested up from the last 2 months of traveling.

I have found it is actually much easier to train when you're not racing on the weekends because you're not tapering to get ready for the weekend, and you're not recovering for 3 days afterwards so workouts can be spaced closer with more per week. On the downside, after not racing for a few weeks your legs and mind start lose the speed and jump that is required for the big races so the fitness is there, but the speed is not. I'll just have to keep doing my repeats with a tale wind and hope that is good enough to keep my speed high.