The Dryland...

...has not been happening this week.

Thanks to the foot I bruised by dropping my slideboard on it, and the horrible cold I came down with just when my foot started feeling better, I've done no dryland this week.  Zip.  None.  Nada.  In fact, I've done no workouts at all this week, except the stretching and back-strengthening stuff prescribed by my chiropractor.

And the scary part is, I'm perfectly happy with that.

Normally, if I had missed a week of workouts, even this early in the season, I'd be frantically trying to figure out how that might affect my racing next winter, and doing everything I could to get back on track.  In fact, I doubt whether I'd have taken these days off--I probably would have tried dryland in my bare feet (since the pressure of my shoe on my instep is what really hurt), and as for the cold...well, it's a nasty one and I feel crummy, but this wouldn't have stopped me before.

This time, though?  This time, I've been perfectly happy sitting my lazy butt on the couch every night watching baseball (go Twins!), and managed to easily banish the few tiny twinges of guilt that I felt for skipping workouts.

So clearly, my mind is not where it usually is with skating.  I'm not sure if it's the "need something new" that I mentioned in my previous post, or a natural waning of my obsession, or a simple "I'm getting older and I've been working at skating very hard for the last 10 years...maybe my 48-year-old-body needs a little break."  Whatever it is, though, I find myself in the position of the kid who wants to get good grades but can't make herself study, or the dieter who truly wants to lose weight by can't put down the cookie--I know that, come next November, I'll be very upset if I turn in some horrifically slow times in my first races, but I just can't get motivated to do what needs to be done to prevent that.  And I'm not really sure what to do about it.

For now, I'm going to play it by ear.  There's a group trail skate set up for tomorrow (barring the predicted rain) with my new inline team, Max Muscle, so I'll try to get to that.  The oval is likely to open next week for inlining, so I'll get out there and see how I feel.  Maybe the skating will rejuvenate my attitude in a way that the dryland couldn't...or maybe I'll end up taking it easy and focusing on fun and technique all year and giving my body a break from the hard work...or maybe...?  I truly don't know where this year is going, skating-wise, and coping with uncertainty is not one of my strong suits...but that seems to be where I am right now, so I'll try to roll with it.