Digging Holes

I am currently arriving at the end of a fairly long, straight road. I use that metaphor because it's not a twisty turny road full of surprises and fun; it's a predictable four-lane highway-style road. I entered the on-ramp for this classic highway way back on December 2nd.  Well, actually it was about mid-afternoon on December 1st if I am being totally honest.

This is the highway to recovery. To a recharge. To feeling motivated again. It is, really, the opposite of one of my OTHER favorite highways:

That highway is what you get on pre-race. When all you can think about is crushing dreams and taking names. Not necessarily in that order. But sometimes it is.

It's actually been the longest I've gone without Accelerate3 scheduling. I've even got one more week! The travesty of being slow and out of shape is debilitating, mentally.  But I can say with 100% surety that I am going to be friggin' READY when the time actually comes.

I am probably going to whine a lot (heads up) and complain about being slow but in the end I've experienced a great "valley" of sorts. Everyone needs to ride the Valley Highway (I'm slaying it with these metaphors, aren't I?) if they want to improve progressively over time.

Partaking of this recovery period means that I have dug myself a solid hole, however.

But I've dug a good hole. It's a hole that you WANT to be in, to a certain extent.  Too many people think they are digging a nice, round hole but they are really just using bad digging technique and tossing what little dirt they actually dig off to the side (for proper technique see above). You gotta really WANT that hole. Badly.

Have you dug a good hole? Have you used proper technique? Have you ridden the Valley Highway this winter? You should ask yourself all of these questions and then in June, reflect back on how you answered.

Or maybe I'm just saying all this because I'm self-conscious and sad about myself.