This time last week I was celebrating my Birthday, sitting in a hotel in Edinburgh , enjoying the Scottish hospitality with my wife (hence no MM). This is the first time we have travelled for quite some time and it’s nice to be able to have a break away! We were with some friends and, normally, this would be something we do twice a year to a destination abroad. With the travel complications at the moment and the likelihood that things will change at the drop of a hat, we decided on Scotland this year.
I have to say I have visited Edinburgh a few times, with work, but have never really taken the time to look around, due to the brevity of the visit. This time we got a chance to do a few things and it made me realise I probably needed to spend longer here, it is such a beautiful place with so much history, it’s well worth another visit.
We did manage to go to the Edinburgh ‘Oktober Fest’ and had a fantastic evening eating, drinking, dancing and singing, with gusto! The next morning my voice was worse for wear and my sun glasses were being worn, even though it was a dull, grey day, which gives you a clue as to how I was feeling.
On my return home, I had a full week of work booked with 8 x two-hour workshops to deliver virtually, which soon put my stress levels right up again. The good thing was, that I had my eyes on the end of the week and knew I had a quiet week (this week) coming up, to recover, catch up on admin and get back in the gym. I haven’t trained or done any exercise for 3 weeks and have started to feel sluggish, so this week, I am concentrating on getting back into the routine again.
I have booked Monday’s session already and set up the session with my ‘gym buddy’. I have also arranged a CrossFit session on Tuesday morning with another mate, Wednesday will be another gym session, Thursday will be a garden workout at my mates ‘pain den’ and then Friday I will rest! All planned and I’m looking forward to all of it.
Normally I don’t take so long without doing some form of exercise, but recently, things just seemed to take over and my priorities changed. It was in the back of my mind but I just had to ‘park’ the training for a while as spending time with friends and work took over. Life has a habit of doing that, and finding the perfect balance can be tough at times.
Like most of you, I don’t mind working hard or playing hard, but I can’t do it continuously otherwise I’d burn out. I have to have time to replenish and recover, which is exercising for me. Whatever your respite my be, it needs to be planned, just as work and trips away need to be planned. If it doesn’t hit the top of the priority list, it will never happen and it will keep getting pushed down the list again.
I have work to do this week, but I have booked my exercise around it, just to get me back into good habits and, as long as nothing crazy happens, it will go to plan.
Have you prioritised your rest and recuperation in your life? How do you build up your reserves again to allow you to maintain a high level of energy for everything else?
I like the picture above as I know loads of people who run on empty, or do small partial charges to keep going. It’s important to recognise that we all need a full charge, now and then, otherwise the battery gets damaged!