Recovery is when a lot of magic happens. You train hard for an hour and then you do sensible things like eating well, sleeping enough and all that, and your body responds by getting stronger and fitter. On a larger scale, you train hard for a few weeks and then you back off for a week or so, and then go again. That's how we structure our programming at The Quad. Each quarter is 12 weeks of slowly building up volume and intensity with the last 4 weeks being rather high on the exertion scale. And then 1 week off to physically and mentally recover.
This works wonders for the coaching team as well - for two reasons. One, we structure our training similarly. Two, a week off every 3 months feels pretty frickin' amazing.
But getting back on is not a given, even for me. The past 10 days, I've not been getting up at my usual time of 3.45 am. My intent was to start from Monday but on Sunday night, I made an excuse for myself to sleep in. Likewise, on Monday night, I told myself that I didn't really NEED to wake up early the next morning.
Finally, last night, I set my alarm and I woke up. And while I did not hit snooze, I was about to just turn the alarm off and head back to bed. Because, well, it is 3.45 am! But I did not.
And so, I know that waking up tomorrow and getting back to my usual routine is gonna happen. And by next Monday, it will feel 100% normal, as it should (considering I do this for about 45 weeks of the year at least).
But even for someone like me who gets up regularly at 3.45 am, it takes a bit of effort to get back on.
The further away from something you are, the harder it is going to be. Inertia and metaphorically pushing a rock uphill is not easy. But it is doable. And it gets easier every time.
And it eventually becomes normal. It eventually becomes your identity. Even then, it is not a given. But you know you can do it.
The moral of the story - it is hard. It is much harder at the beginning and while it does get easier, you will go through phases where it is suddenly hard, where you question it. And that's normal.
Just push through. You got this!