Get Ready for Some Mush

This weekend's brick went..well? I had to do my 2:30 ride inside because I got home from work at 3:30 and collapsed on the couch for 2 and a half hours. After my date with the trainer was over, I hit the treadmill for an awesome 30 minute run. The next morning, however? I. was. sore.
   Yes, I know that doing a 3 hour straight cardio workout that works all different muscle groups is going to leave me sore. But I didn't just feel sore- I felt crappy, too. So crappy that my swim times were off. Morning and evening.
   So crappy that I still didn't swim well today. THAT, to me, is a red flag. To re-evaluate, to stop exercising, to hold the phone and take stock of what the heck I am doing. Because I love running, swimming, and I am growing to love biking, and I don't want a training schedule to diminish those loves for me.
    I may have done most of this re-evaluating while lying immobile on the couch, so sure it could be skewed, but hey, most of my thinking is done during kinetic movement, and I think that is the opposite of what my body needed today.
   See, I have always been an energetic person. I've been active and bouncing off the walls since I was little, and I feel more productive, more inteligent, and more organized when I am healthy and in-shape. The negative side of this, of course, is a body that is used to constant movement. A body that hurts when it doesn't get to run, swim, bike, or lift. A body that knows it needs rest, but still craves pavement and water and dumbells even when all it really needs is a pillow and a nice, warm blanket.
     As I lay on the couch this evening, watching the clock tick from 4:45 to 5:15 to 5:45 to 6:00, and then finally the definitive 6:15 that means I missed my track workout, I found that I couldn't make myself move. As much as my legs yearned to get up and go run, and my self-image yearned to burn off those extra calories from peanut butter, pancakes, etc., my mind knew I needed a break. Because gues what I realized? I haven't had a day off of exercise since June.
    CRAZY, right? Sure, I've had "easy" days, but I haven't had a single day off to be non-moving, to sit and watch TV, to read, to go to the library... my whole summer has been:
5:30 am: wake up, get ready for swim.
6-7:30: swim
10-12: swim lessons
12-3: break
3-on: next workout, either teach a swim lesson or lifeguard
9:30: crash into bed.

Not. Fun. And that other night when I went to practice after getting only an hour of sleep? It was awesome. I felt like a normal teenager. Because that's what I am, a teenager. Not a professional athlete, not a coach (yet), just a normal kid who only has 2 years left before she is out of her teens and into those scary 20's.
   So what am I doing from now on, you ask? I am letting go of my coach. I am signing up for the Baltimore Marathon. I am waking up tomorrow and going to swim practice. And then grabbing my shoes and my iPod and hitting my favorite loop for a seriously overdue thought session on my feet. Life shouldn't be worked in and around a workout schedule; it should be the other way around.